1839 - took a written description of Daguerre's method of photography to Alexander S. Wolcott, who immediately designed a camera for making daguerreotype portraits. 1840 - along with Wolcott, opened a daguerreotype portrait gallery in New York. Travelled to England in order to provide technical assistance to Richard Beard, who was about to construct a photographic studio on the roof of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in London's Regent Street. 1841 - filed a patent in the United States for a method of polishing metal plates for photography. 1842 - obtained from Richard Beard the patent rights for the daguerreotype process in the counties of Lancashire, Cheshire and Derbyshire. 1843 - opened a daguerreotype portrait studio next to the Athenaeum on Victoria Street in Derby. 1844 - sold the studio to William Akers, passed the daguerreotype licence for Derbyshire to Thomas Roberts, a local bookseller and newsagent, and returned to the United States. 1866 - returned to his native town of Saco in Maine where he became the first President of the York Institute.