A native of Granby, Connecticut, Chloe Holcomb was the first wife of businessman Virgil Cornish, whom she married on Christmas Day in 1821. The mother of two sons, Mrs. Cornish died on November 23, 1837, several years before the advent of portrait photography.

In his advertising broadside of 1851, Augustus Washington enumerated the many services available to patrons of his Hartford Gallery, noting, "Portraits, Engravings, and other Daguerreotypes, neatly copied." This daguerreotype, which is an excellent example of Washington's copy work, reproduces an artist's rendering of Cornish dating from around the time of the sitter's marriage. By securing a daguerreotype copy of the watercolor-and-pastel profile, family members who did not have access to the original portrait would still have been able to possess Mrs. Cornish's likeness.

Augustus Washington
Sixth-plate daguerreotype, circa 1853, after c. 1821 profile portrait by an unidentified artist
Image courtesy The Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, CT
gift of Miss Elizabeth Y. Hall