Artifact of the Week: Daguerreotype Frame

Archaeologists recovered this daguerreotype frame from Block 112 in Downtown San Diego. This section of San Diego housed a working class population during the late Victorian period (c.1880-1915).

A portrait picture cost 12 cents in the 1880s. A loaf of bread cost 6 cents. Thus, this luxury might have been affordable to people living on Block 112. Despite their poverty, the inhabitants of Block 112 showed a desire to not just survive, but to make a home.

Date: Post-Contact Period (300 ya – present)
Material Class: Metal

Want to learn more? Visit the exhibit Block 112: The Untold Story of San Diego’s Working Class in the 1800s currently on view at the Center.