A young girl stands in three-quarter length pose before the camera of Jeremiah Gurney, one of nineteenth-century New York City's most celebrated daguerreians. The image is a sixth plate daguerreotype, housed in a period leather case with a rope-pattern gilt mat, and dates most likely to Gurney's tenure at 349 Broadway, placing it between 1852 and 1860.

The child wears an off-the-shoulder dress with lace-trimmed sleeves and an embroidered flounced skirt, her right arm resting on a turned-leg studio side table. Long ringlet curls frame her face, and a small oval pendant hangs at her neckline. White stockings and black strap shoes are visible below the hem, and she holds a small white object, possibly a handkerchief, loosely in her left hand.

Jeremiah Gurney (1812-?) began his photographic career at 189 Broadway in the early 1840s and rose to prominence through repeated prize wins at the American Institute Fair and an 1851 exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London. His 349 Broadway gallery, acquired in 1852 from the Whitehurst interests, became his primary studio and one of the most fashionable portrait establishments in antebellum New York.

Property of a Palmer, Massachusetts gentleman.