An elderly woman seated in three-quarter view anchors this sixth plate daguerreotype, produced at the prominent New York City studio of Rufus P. Anson, active at 589 Broadway from 1853 through at least 1860. The image dates to that period and represents the output of one of antebellum Manhattan's most ambitious daguerreian operations, one that by 1860 employed fifteen camera operators.

The subject wears a white linen cap tied close around her face, a white fichu crossed at the chest, and a loose shawl draped over both shoulders with arms folded at the lap. Her expression is composed and direct, her deeply lined features recorded with the fine tonal gradation characteristic of a well-appointed studio. A small round object, possibly a hat or vessel, is visible at the left edge of the frame.

Anson was listed in the 1860 New York City census as a native New Yorker residing with his wife and an eleven-year-old child, declaring personal property valued at $500. The scale of his operation, fifteen camera operators working simultaneously, made him one of the most commercially active daguerreotypists in the city during the medium's final years of dominance.

The velvet liner inside the leather case is embossed with a scrollwork cartouche reading "Anson, 589 Broadway, N.Y."

Property of a Palmer, Massachusetts gentleman.