Half plate daguerreotype portrait of James Curtis Waldo and his wife, Margaret Mary Woods. Waldo was a prominent writer and journalist who was born in Illinois in 1835 and died in New Orleans in 1901. He is best known for his poems published under the name "Tim Linkenwater." The daguerreotype is housed in an ornate gold mat and frame. When removed from its frame in 1989 for conservation, it was discovered that the back of the plate had a Christofle platemark with scales.