A striking sixth plate daguerreotype of an unidentified man, produced at Root's Gallery, 140 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, one of the most celebrated daguerreian establishments in antebellum America. The plate is set behind a brass mat with rounded corners and housed in a leather case with an embossed floral design on the exterior cover. Attribution to Marcus Aurelius Root's Philadelphia gallery places the sitting between 1845 and 1856, the years Root operated continuously at that Chestnut Street address.

The subject is shown in a tight bust-length pose, facing the camera directly with a composed, unsmiling expression. He wears a dark frock coat over a quilted dark waistcoat, with a white shirt and a loosely tied dark silk cravat falling open at center. Small oval wire-rimmed spectacles with gold-toned bridges rest low on his nose, adding a distinctly intellectual character to the portrait.

Marcus Aurelius Root (1808–1888) was among the foremost practitioners of the daguerreotype in the United States, trained in the process alongside Robert Cornelius in Philadelphia and active in galleries from Mobile to New York City before establishing his signature Chestnut Street gallery. He later authored The Camera and the Pencil (1864), the era's most comprehensive American treatise on photographic portraiture.

The red velvet pad inside the case lid bears the embossed imprint: ROOT'S GALLERY / 140 S. CHESTNUT ST. / PHILADA.

Property of a Palmer, Massachusetts gentleman.