There are daguerreotype portraits in almost every family, and in any cases these are now fast fading or tarnishing. Yet any amateur photographer can secure from these negatives which is any number of permanent prints may be struck off. How to do this is told in La Nature (January 21) by a correspondent signing himself “G.M.” Says this writer:
“The portraits of our grandparents are on the silvered plates of Daguerre. The image is unique and fragile; an accident may ruin it; it is therefore well to make from it a photographic negative. To do this the silver image must first be well cleansed, without touching it, even with the softest brush, which might leave traces. It is tarnished by a layer of silver oxide, which is necessary to remove … care must be taken with the daguerreotype, for the image my be completely removed.”
Excerpted from “How to Copy an Old Daguerreotype,” originally published in “The Photographic Times,” Volume XXXVIII, January 1906.