Pouring their Hearts into Photographing the Appearance of a Courtesan at Daianji, a Temple in Shimoda, in Order to Present to the American King, from the Black Ship scroll

Though unidentified in this drawing, Perry’s official daguerreotypist, Eliphalet M. Brown Jr., in a blue tunic-like coat with his two assistants in yellow, prepares to photograph a young Japanese “courtesan.” Though Brown appears serious, one assistant suggestively sticks his tongue out at her as the other eagerly helps seat her. The artist depicted the woman with porcelain white skin, while the men have bushy brows and dramatic facial hair, denoting the derogatory term for Westerners ketojin, or “hairy barbarian.”