Daniel DeWitt Tompkins Davie

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Daniel DeWitt Tompkins Davie (D. D. T. Davie) was an American photographer and a pioneer of the daguerreotype in the 19th century. He was born in Otsego County, New York, around 1816–1820, and grew up in Bolivar, New York, after his family moved there in 1823. He wanted to be a painter but money problems led him to photography after 1843. Davie opened his first studio in Utica in 1846 and quickly built a strong reputation, photographing many members of Congress in 1850. His daguerreotype of Daniel Webster from that year was highly praised.

In 1851 Davie expanded into making the chemicals used in daguerreotypes and invented several useful tools, including a plate vise, a buffing lathe, a camera stand, and a device for cleaning and buffing plates. He also explored albumen prints and stereoscopic pictures. In the 1850s he opened a second studio in Syracuse with his brother Joseph and owned a gallery in Albany. He helped publish the monthly Scientific Daguerreian with Gordon Evans, though no copies survive. His assistant for several years in the mid-1850s was Julia Ann Rudolph, early in her long career.

Davie was elected the first president of the Association of Daguerreotypists in 1851. He led a team that investigated Levi Hill’s claimed invention of color daguerreotypes, heliochromy, and the team declared the claim a delusion. He later used legal means to block Hill’s book on the subject, causing most of the edition to be pulped. Later researchers have noted that Hill may have produced some color, though in a muted way.

Davie died in February 1877, aged about 60–61, in Alden, New York. His body was brought to Bolivar for burial beside his parents at Maple Lawn Cemetery. He was married to Azubah Burdick, and they had four daughters and a son named after his father.