Augustus Washington

Augustus Washington was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1820. His father was a former slave and his mother was a woman of South Asian descent. Washington studied at Oneida Institute in Whitesboro, New York and the Kimball Union Academy before entering Dartmouth College in 1843. He began making daguerreotypes to finance his education, but had to leave Dartmouth in 1844 due to increasing debts. He moved to Hartford and opened a daguerrean studio in the Waverly Building. By 1851, he was established in the Kellogg Building at 136 Main Street; many of the cases housing his daguerreotypes bear this address. In 1854, Washington, his wife, and children emigrated to Liberia. He became a successful planter and politician, serving in the Liberian Senate and House of Representatives. He died in Monrovia, the Liberian capital, in 1875.