A heartbreaking and visually haunting sixth plate daguerreotype post mortem of a young girl lying peacefully in repose, with hands clasped gently over a small book and gloved in mourning black. Her hair is neatly combed, and her dress is rendered in delicate detail, with finely gathered fabric and hand-tinted highlights along the collar. Most strikingly, a small porcelain doll is posed behind her shoulder, almost as if watching over her, a detail that underscores the tragedy of the image and reflects the emotional weight such objects held for mourning families of the era.

The daguerreotype itself is crisply detailed, with beautiful soft light modeling the girl’s serene features. The plate is housed in a deeply embossed floral leather case, its velvet pad now slightly worn from time, but still retaining its rich, saturated tone. The original mat is a finely cast floral variant with elegant scalloped edges, typical of high-end work from the early-to-mid 1850s.

Images of deceased children holding or surrounded by toys are among the most emotionally charged and historically resonant forms of American mourning photography. This example is both unusually tender and compositionally deliberate, preserving not just the child’s likeness but the emotional context of her short life.