Street Scene, St. Louis, Missouri

John Outley began as a daguerrotypist in 1849, and then transitioned to making salt prints. Invented by William Henry Fox Talbot salt prints were a paper-based process, as opposed to daguerreotypes which were produced on a polished, silver-coated plate. Though they lack daguerreotypes’ minute clarity, salt prints could be made at a larger scale and reproduced using a paper negative. To improve this photograph’s clarity, Outley and Williams would have used a prolonged exposure time, as evidenced by the blurred tree and ghostly figures on the sidewalk. Outley owned a coal yard in St. Louis, and his could be the one that is documented in this photograph.