Augustus Washington became one of the only historically documented African American daguerreotypists using the first commercial photographic process, invented in 1839, to develop pictures on a silver surface sensitized with iodine exposed to mercury vapor.

During the year 1836 at the age of 16, Washington organized a school and instructed African American children in New Jersey’s capital city.

He studied at Kimball Union Academy and Oneida Institute before attending Dartmouth College in 1843 (Washington was among one of the first African Americans accepted into Dartmouth College at the time).

In 1844 Washington traveled to Hartford, Connecticut where he became a teacher at the North African School located on Talcott Street.

While Washington saw great success with his business, he worried about the future for African Americans in the United States.