The Daguerreian Society welcomes two new members to its Board of Directors. 

Edith Cuerrier was elected to the Board last fall and began her three-year term in January. 

Allen Phillips joined the Board in February, filling a seat vacated by Terry Alphonse, who recently stepped down. Allen's term will run through next year.

Edith is a French Canadian born near Montreal and now based in Newfoundland and Labrador. She is a retired museum and archives professional who still works part-time at the provincial archives in St John's, NL, and has taught History of Photography courses in local continuing education programs over the years. 

As a photography scholar and enthusiast, she served as cataloguer of the Cromer Collection Project at the George Eastman Museum (2017–2019). Earlier in her career, she spent over 20 years as a military photographer in the Royal Canadian Air Force. 

Edith earned her MA in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) and a BA in Anthropology from Memorial University of Newfoundland. She has been a member of the Daguerreian Society since 2008 and attended her first Daguerreian Symposium in 2013 (Paris) and several since (New York, Chicago, Kansas City, etc.).

Allen brings decades of experience as a photographer, collector, dealer, and museum professional, along with a longstanding engagement with both historical and contemporary photographic processes.

A lifelong photographer, he began working with 19th-century techniques—including cyanotype, platinum, and salt printing—in the early 1970s. His interest in historic photography soon led him to collecting, and by the mid-1970s he had begun assembling a collection of 19th-century photographs, with a particular focus on the daguerreotype. He later became a full-time photography dealer specializing in the medium.

An early adopter of digital photography in the 1980s, Allen went on to build a distinguished career in museum imaging and publications. He has established digital photography studios at several major institutions, including the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, where he has served as Imaging and Publications Manager for more than two decades.

Allen has also contributed to recent scholarship and exhibitions in the field. In 2023, he co-curated I Am Seen … Therefore, I Am: Isaac Julien and Frederick Douglass, which brought together 75 African American daguerreotypes.

More recently, he curated The Scenic Daguerreotype in America, 1840–1860, an exhibition featuring 19th-century outdoor views alongside contemporary works by modern daguerreian artists. The exhibition was a centerpiece of the 2025 Symposium & Photo Fair, hosted by the Wadsworth Atheneum. 

In addition to his institutional work, Allen remains an active practitioner of the daguerreotype.

The Society extends its thanks to Terry Alphonse for his service on the Board and looks forward to Edith and Allen's contributions as it continues to strengthen its mission of supporting the study, preservation, and appreciation of 19th-century photography.