With over 100 years of history ourselves, the Milton Historical Society has many items whose provenance is no longer known. The Daguerreotypes and Ambrotypes here are the most compelling because the beloved faces they preserve still speak to us, though silently. Daguerreotypes were the first widely produced photographs, popular in the US in the 1840's and 1850's. Ambrotypes were a contemporary and successor to Daguerrotypes, the image printed on glass instead of silver-plated copper. Popular throughout the 1850's, Ambrotypes tended to be cheaper and -- looking back now 150 years — preserved better.

Please give them a close look; you can click on each one to enlarge. We would dearly like to hear from you if you have even a guess as to who these people are. Most likely, they lived in Milton or were at least family of Milton residents. Do you see a family resemblance? Even a possible provenance is better than none.

Note that the last image, the Daguerreotype below on the right, is of a portrait, likely someone who died in the early 19th century or before.