Sixth plate studio portrait daguerreotype. Mare Island / San Francisco Bay, California, ca. 1854. Hinged miniature pressed-leather case with original brass closure hardware.

A monumental discovery and an irreplaceable cornerstone of American naval history, representing the earliest known photographic image in existence of David Glasgow Farragut (1801 - 1870), the foremost naval hero of the American Civil War and the first officer in United States history to attain the ranks of Vice Admiral and full Admiral.

The portrait captures Farragut in mid-life during his pivotal tenure establishing the first permanent United States naval installation on the Pacific Coast. Facing forward with quiet, unwavering intensity, he is attired in his Union regulation double breasted officer's frock coat with full colonel's shoulder boards depicting a spread-winged eagle. His clean-shaven, determined jawline, cleft chin, and deep-set, penetrating eyes capture the unvarnished countenance of the commander who, a decade later, would immortalize American resolve at Mobile Bay with the cry, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"

In August 1853, following decades of storied service dating back to the War of 1812 under Captain David Porter aboard the USS Essex, then-Commander Farragut was dispatched to Northern California by Secretary of the Navy James C. Dobbin with orders to establish the Pacific fleet's operational anchor. Arriving in San Francisco Bay during the frenetic height of the Gold Rush, Farragut oversaw the founding, surveying, and construction of Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in Solano County, serving as its first commandant from September 1854 until July 1858.

During his early months establishing the shipyard, Farragut sat for this historic Daguerreian portrait - almost certainly taken by a pioneering San Francisco daguerreotypist. Pre-Civil War photographs of Farragut are virtually nonexistent in institutional or private holdings; all standard published engravings, cartes de visite, and imperial portraits date exclusively to his Civil War flagship command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron aboard the USS Hartford (1862–1865). Unbroken provenance to the preeminent collection of naval scholar Paul DeHaan cements this plate as a paramount, unrepeatable national treasure of 19th-century photography.

[Daguerreotype, Sixth Plate, David Glasgow Farragut, Admiral Farragut, Captain Farragut, US Navy, Mare Island, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California Gold Rush, San Francisco, USS Hartford, Civil War Navy, Naval Hero, Damn the Torpedoes, Mobile Bay, New Orleans, Paul DeHaan Collection, Earliest Known Photograph, Cased Image]

Very good condition. The plate displays strong focal crispness and clarity. The surface is remarkably clean, showing only light, natural peripheral tarnish haloing the inner edge of the brass mat.