In celebration of International Women’s Day, we would like to acknowledge Southbury’s own Ann F. Stiles. She received the first photographic patent given to a woman in the U.S. She was born in 1832 and grew up interested in the scientific equipment in her father’s study. Ann’s father, David Judson Stiles, owned the profitable Roxbury Mine.
The daguerreotype photographs were introduced and became the first affordable photographic process. The pictures were very small, being only about two inches tall. Ann found that it was very hard to see details of a daguerreotype photograph. She used her own skills to grind a circular piece of glass into a magnifying glass, and fit it into a cylindrical leather base. A certain amount of light was allowed into the tube to be able to view the magnified photograph. The photograph could be cut to fit inside of the tube. The patent #7041 was accepted on January 22, 1850 and officially named “Case for Daguerreotype-Pictures.”
The Southbury Historical Society currently has Ann F. Stiles’ artifact on display at the Old Town Hall Museum.
Melinda Elliott
President of the Southbury Historical Society