Robert Given Swift, connected across this group to Philadelphia daguerreotypist Henry B. Swift, is the subject of three photographs spanning three processes: a quarter plate daguerreotype known informally as the Kite Boy, a tintype, and a carte de visite. No photographer's imprint accompanies the daguerreotype or tintype, though the carte de visite carries a studio backmark.

In the daguerreotype, young Robert stands in a broad brimmed boater hat and buttoned jacket, one hand on his hip, the other raising a large fringed kite toward the camera with its string trailing to the ground. The plate is housed in a leather case with a blind and gilt tooled cover centered on a torch within a wreath, and an interior mat featuring a radiating sunburst medallion around an oval opening.

The carte de visite, backmarked Philada Photographic Co of 730 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, carries a penciled identification on its reverse naming the sitter as Robert Given Swift, son of photographer Henry B. Swift of 312 Market Street, Philadelphia. That handwriting appears more recent than the other period inscriptions in the group. A related cased Swift family daguerreotype in an institutional collection instead describes its sitter, a Robert G. Swift, as the great nephew of Mary Barnes Swift, described there as Henry B. Swift's mother, which would place Robert as a nephew or grandnephew of Henry rather than his son. The exact relationship between Robert, Henry, and Mary Barnes Swift is not fully resolved between these sources, and the sitter's connection to Henry B. Swift is presented here as documented rather than definitively son or nephew. The tintype, mounted in an oval red bordered card sleeve, bears a faint pencil notation on its paper backing reading C.A. Whitmer No. 18.

Henry B. Swift operated as a daguerreotypist at 312 Market Street, Philadelphia, from 1850 to 1855, first in partnership as Wainwright and Swift, then alone from 1851 to 1853, and later as Swift and Mahan from 1854 to 1855. He exhibited images at the Franklin Institute in 1852, and identified examples of his work are known with his name embossed on a daguerreotype case front and with the Swift and Mahan partnership gilded on a case back.

A related cased daguerreotype, Mary Barnes Swift with her great nephew Robert G. Swift, taken by Henry B. Swift and dated circa 1851, is held by the Library Company of Philadelphia's Print Department (P.2004.9.1) and documents a Robert G. Swift within the Swift family circle, though the precise family relationships connecting Robert, Henry, and Mary Barnes Swift await further confirmation.