Plumbe’s career embodied the dynamic era in which he lived. Born in Wales, he immigrated as a child to the United States, where he became a civil engineer and early proponent of a transcontinental railroad. He took up photography in 1840 and soon owned a chain of successful daguerreotype studios in 15 states and Washington, DC, the first in the nation’s capital. The proliferation of his studios matched the rising accessibility and affordability of photography. This image is striking in its ordinariness, portraying an everyday worker’s reality instead of symbols of wealth and status.

By 1848 Plumbe’s business was in trouble; he sold the studios and went back to lobbying for railways. His financial losses, as well as the news that the government would use other surveyors and engineers to build along a route Plumbe had advocated, contributed to a deep depression that led him to die by suicide when he was only 47.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023).