# Two Children with Toys

- By: Unidentified Photographer
- Date: c. 1855
- Medium: daguerreotype, quarter-plate
- Classification: Photograph
- Dimensions: Image: 10.8 x 8.3 cm (4 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.); Case: 12.1 x 9.4 cm (4 3/4 x 3 11/16 in.); Matted: 61 x 50.8 cm (24 x 20 in.)
- Culture: America
- Credit line: John L. Severance Fund
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/2002.32)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2002.32/2002.32_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Children have always been particularly cherished subjects for photography. Portraits were made to preserve the memory of their stages of growth and, in an age when long-distance travel was rare, to share with faraway relatives. And, for a sadder reason: in 1840 an estimated one-third of children died before age five. Photography offered grieving parents the opportunity to immortalize their children’s features. This tragic genre of photographs, later called “post-mortems,” often depicts the children in fine clothing, laying down with eyes shut, as if merely napping.