Collections Online

John Brown

John Brown Daguerreotype
Image 1 of 1

To order an image, navigate to the full
display and click "request this image"
on the blue toolbar.

Daguerreotype attributed to John Adams Whipple, 1856

Visible oval image: 9 cm x 6.5 cm; in leather case: 12 cm x 9.5 cm

From the Daguerreotype collection
Photo. 1.18


    Choose an alternate description of this item written for these projects:
  • Main description

[ This description is from the project: MHS 225th Anniversary ]

On 17 October 1859, John Brown led 21 white and black followers in an attempt to capture the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and instigate a slave rebellion. The attack failed, but Brown's stoicism during his trial and at his execution made him an abolitionist martyr.