Preserving the Legends of the American Frontier: Daguerreotype Portraits by Thomas M. Easterly

Two early Daguerreotypes by Th.M. Easterly depict James Kirker
and Thomas Forsyth, so-called Mountain Men, i.e. rugged trappers
and fur-traders who preferred the silence of the wilderness to
the comforts of polite society. The remarkable personal
histories of both men are told. The photographs are interpreted
as standard romantic images of the exotic west. A biography of
Easterly is given. He stubbornly adhered to the Daguerreotype
for three decades after 1845, because they gave ""perfect
images''.