[ Photographs ] (Cased Images) Medical Pair of sixth-plate daguerreotype portraits of a mother and her infant who suffers from a large spinal cord deformity: the first image shows the child from behind, held upright by the mother and supported by a

[ Photographs ] (Cased Images) Medical Pair of sixth-plate daguerreotype portraits of a mother and her infant who suffers from a large spinal cord deformity: the first image shows the child from behind, held upright by the mother and supported by a man's hand below the second plate depicts the infant nursing at the mother's breast; in a full leather case. Middle 1850s E10000-15000 A Haunting, Sad and Curious Pair Of Images. The daguerreotypes appear to have been taken not as a celebratory record but as a medical document-hence the back and side views and the attempt to show the infant's deformity ( syringomyelia, a fatal one in the middle 19th century) uncovered. Yet, the impact of the piece is due less to the medical information it imparts than to the pathos of the images, the palpable affection between the mother and her child. The bond of affection between them is revealed in the mother's hands and, in particular, in the barely visible smile on her face as she watches the child nurse.