Always at the forefront of photographic development, Frederick Langenheim opened a studio with his brother William in Philadelphia in 1842. Born in Germany, the brothers revolutionized picture making by using the latest in optics like the Voightlander Petzval lens. The Langenheim's were the first to use positive albumen photographic plates as lantern slides for projection in magic lanterns and introduced the stereoscopic photographic to an American audience.

One of Frederick and Williams’s most masterful work was an ambitious five-piece daguerreotype panoramas of Niagara Falls created in 1845. Of no lesser quality is the quarter-plate daguerreotype offered here, depicting a charming portrait of a man and his canine best friend. The Langenheim brother's work can be found in the collections of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The National Gallery of Art D.C.; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.