b. 1804; d. 1844
Wolcott was an American Daguerreotype photographer and instrument maker. He is particularly remembered for having invented a camera which, instead of a lens, had inside it a large concave mirror which reflected intense light on to the plate, thus greatly lessening the required exposure time. It also had another advantage for Daguerreotype photographers in that the image was no longer laterally reversed. The disadvantage was that the size of the pictures were limited to 2 square inches.
Wolcott opened the world's first portrait studio in March 1840, and a year
later sold exclusive rights to Richard Beard, who opened the first
studio in Europe a year later.
© Robert Leggat, 1999.