Journal of Business and Technical Communication Oct 1998

The Daguerreotype and the Rhetoric of Photographic Technology

GREGORY A. WICKLIFF

Abstract

Although many excellent histories of photography and its invention exist, few focus on the rhetoric employed in debates over scientific priority and the romantic construct of nature as the active agent in photographic processes. This article surveys the range and complexity of rhetorical claims made for the first practical photographic process, daguerreotypy. It presents a rereading of the standard and romanticized history of the invention, defines the daguerreotype as a made object and cultural artifact with its own supratextual rhetoric, and presents examples from the discourse of 1839-1860 that show how daguerreotypes were argued to be simultaneously equal to, superior to, and inferior to natural human perceptions and representations.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
1998-10-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651998012004001
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism discourse analysis
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Moran et al. (2012)
    A Bibliography of Works Published in the History of Professional Communication …
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Malone (2007)
    Historical Studies of Technical Communication in the United States and England:…
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication

References (30) · 2 in this index

  1. Arago, Dominique François
    Classic Essays on Photography
  2. Barger, Susan M.
    The Daguerreotype: Nineteenth-Century Technology and Modern Science
  3. Barthes, Roland
    Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography
  4. Bartlett, William Holmes Chambers
    Bartlett's Photographs of the Solar Eclipse of May 26, 1850
  5. Bianculli, David
    Teleliteracy: Taking Television Seriously
Show all 30 →
  1. (1839)
    The Knickerbocker
  2. (1846)
    Littell's Living Age
  3. Davis, D. T. (1896)
    McClure's Magazine
  4. Fitzgibbon, J. H. (1851)
    The Western Journal, of Agriculture, Manufactures, Mechanic Arts, Internal Improvements, Commerce, and General Literature
  5. Foresta, Merry A.
    Secrets of the Dark Chamber: The Art of the American Daguerreotype
  6. Greenhill, Ralph
    Engineer's Witness
  7. Hawthorne, Nathaniel
    Tales and Sketches
  8. Hawthorne, Nathaniel
    The House of the Seven Gables
  9. Hodges, James
    The Great Victoria Bridge in Canada
  10. Holmes, Oliver Wendell
    Classic Essays on Photography
  11. Johnson (1995)
    Romancing the hypertext: A rhetorical/historiographical view of the “Hyperpheno…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  12. Kostelnick (1996)
    Supra-Textual Design: The Visual Rhetoric of Whole Documents
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  13. Marien, Mary Warner
    Photography and Its Critics: A Cultural History, 1839-1900
  14. (1839)
    The New Yorker
  15. (1839)
    The New Yorker
  16. Newhall, Beaumont
    Latent Image: The Discovery of Photography
  17. Peale, Rembrandt (1857)
    10.2307/25527533
    The Crayon  ↗
  18. (1839)
    The Corsair. A Gazette of Literature, Art, Dramatic Criticism, Fashion and Novelty”
  19. Perry, M. C.
    Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan
  20. Plato
    Republic
     ↗
  21. Poe, Edgar Alan
    Classic Essays on Photography
  22. Robinson, John (1839)
    The American Journal of Science and Arts
  23. Tractenberg, Alan
    Classic Essays on Photography
  24. Tractenberg, Alan
    Photography in Nineteenth-Century America
  25. Whipple, John Adams (1888)
    Anthony's Photographic Bulletin
CrossRef global citation count: 4 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Res Rhetorica Apr 2026
    Logos in ancient Greek discourse on rhetoric: An overview ↗
    Arkadiusz Sokolnicki
    classical rhetoric rhetorical criticism discourse analysis argument
  2. Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Apr 2026
    What to Expect When You’re Not Expecting: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Constructing Risk at Advanced Maternal Age ↗
    Melissa Carrion
    rhetorical criticism discourse analysis
  3. Poroi Feb 2026
    Multi-Methodological, Multiply Ontological: Pivoting Methodologies in Rhetorical Analysis of Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) ↗
    Paige Welsh; S. Scott Graham
    rhetorical criticism discourse analysis
  4. Poroi Feb 2026
    Using Stasis Theory as a Heuristic for Examining Epistemological Dilemmas in a Post-Truth Landscape ↗
    Bruce Bowles
    classical rhetoric modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism discourse analysis argument
  5. Written Communication Feb 2026
    Rhetoric and Affect: The Role of Faith in Student Writers’ Wayfinding ↗
    Amy D. Williams; Jonathan Ostenson
    rhetorical criticism discourse analysis empirical research affect and writing