Thomas Easterly Collection

Thomas Easterly (1809-1882), a native of Vermont, was an itinerant photographer in Iowa and the upper Midwest until 1848 when he settled in St. Louis. He operated a daguerreotype studio in the city until the 1870s. His business did well through the late 1850s, but by the 1860s most photographers had abandoned the daguerreotype process for the albumen and collodion processes. Easterly felt that the daguerreotype was an art form and refused to adopt new techniques. As a result, his studio suffered from declining patronage, and he himself developed poor health, probably due to the mercury poisoning often associated with the daguerreotype process. The last view in the collection dates from 1872.

The Easterly Collection consists of 636 daguerreotypes by and attributed to Thomas M. Easterly, and is one of the largest institutional holdings by a single daguerrean. The collection is notable for its unusually large number (112) of landscape and cityscape photographs. Easterly was committed to documenting the history of the city, and his work includes the earliest surviving photographic views of St. Louis. Easterly is also noted for photographing significant sites over time, as in the documentary series of the destruction of the Indian “Big Mound” in St. Louis between 1853 and 1869.
Most of Easterly’s business was in portrait photography. The vast majority of the collection includes portraits of wealthy or prominent St. Louisians or visiting dignitaries. Significant portrait subjects in the Easterly Collection include portraits of Keokuk and other Sauk and Fox chiefs made in 1847, Iowa Indians made in 1849, African American subjects, and celebrities of the day such as Jenny Lind, Lola Montez, and Kate and Maggie Fox.

The most complete appreciation of Easterly's life and work, with 233 illustrations is Dolores Kilgo's book “Likeness and Landscape: Thomas M. Easterly and the Art of the Daguerreotype” published by the Missouri Historical Society Press in 1994. An exhibit of the same name accompanied the book.

The Missouri History Museum's Cross Collections Search now has over 500 Easterly photos online.

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