View of Landscape, including the South Side of Captain Enoch Wood's Estate, in West Boxford

Wilson Flagg (1805-1884) was born in Beverly, Massachusetts and educated at Harvard University. Flagg began his career as a painter, but later turned to photography, which was a new and exciting field at the time. In 1841 Flagg became interested in the daguerreotype process invented by Louis Daguerre in France. He learned the process from Samuel Morse and became one of the first photographers in the United States. Flagg opened his own studio in Boston and quickly gained a reputation for his high-quality portraits. Flagg also wrote extensively about photography and its potential uses. He believed that photography could be used for scientific purposes, such as documenting natural history specimens and recording astronomical observations. He also wrote about the artistic potential of photography, arguing that it could be used to create beautiful and expressive images. In addition to his work as a photographer and writer, Flagg was also an inventor. He developed a number of photographic processes, including the 'Flaggotype', a type of collodion process that produced high quality prints. Today, Wilson Flagg is remembered as one of the pioneers of American photography. His work helped establish photography as a legitimate art form and paved the way for future generations of photographers.