Ezra Greenleaf Weld

This gave Weld the opportunity to photograph the legendary orator Frederick Douglass with the Edmonson sisters, Gerritt and Abby Kelley Foster.

Daguerreotypes were seldom attempted under these circumstances because the long exposure time required made it difficult to get a satisfactory result.

Two original half-plates exist: One is held by the Madison County Historical Society in Oneida, New York, the other is in a private collection and currently on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

In an 1850 advertisement in his local newspaper, Greenleaf offered: "Miniatures executed in the finest style, and put in Rings, Pins, Lockets and cases, of great variety size and price."

By 1851 he had leased new quarters on the top floor of a building, where he placed a skylight to receive northern light for his studio sessions.

Weld daguerreotype taken at the 1850 Fugitive Slave Convention , Cazenovia, New York. The Edmonson sisters are standing wearing bonnets and shawls in the row behind the seated speakers. Frederick Douglass is seated, with Gerrit Smith standing behind him.