The story begins with the narrator's, Ernest, meeting with Professor Dunkelheim, an inventor, during which he requests that the Professor take two portraits - one of himself and the other of his betrothed, Elora - using his new image-making technique. The narrator hints at his horror and hatred of the Professor that he does not completely understand at their initial meetings. The narrator discusses his first viewing of the Professor's portraits - which are remarkable, moving likenesses - and the fears and sense of violation expressed by the main characters that the Professor has copies. The story explores the anguish of both watching and being watched. When Ernest returns to the Professor to retrieve the Professor's personal copies, Ernest finds that Dunkleheim has left Berlin. Elora refuses to be married while another person can watch them in their most intimate moments and Ernest leaves to follow Dunkelheim.
Originally published anonymously in the New York Sunday Courier and reprinted in the June 1852 Photographic Art-Journal, as "The Magnetic Daguerreotypes." Henry Clapp later posthumously published North's short story in The Saturday Press in two parts during the fall of 1858, as "The Magnetic Portraits."
An electronic version of this text was previously available in CONTENTdm and has been migrated to Lehigh University's Digital Collections. Reconstruction of direct links to individual articles is in progress. In the meantime, browse issues of the Saturday Press in the Vault at Pfaff's Digital Collection. Page images of The New York Saturday Press were scanned from microfilm owned by Emory University, which was made from original copies held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
