Portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson, circa 1865

Summary

Well-known writer Ralph Waldo Emerson posed for this carte-de-visite in Boston around 1865. The carte-de-visite was a small photographic print on cardboard stock made by professional photographers. People exchanged and collected portrait cartes-de-visite, popular in the United States from the Civil War in the 1860s through the 1880s, to help them remember family and celebrities.

Well-known writer Ralph Waldo Emerson posed for this carte-de-visite in Boston around 1865. The carte-de-visite was a small photographic print on cardboard stock made by professional photographers. People exchanged and collected portrait cartes-de-visite, popular in the United States from the Civil War in the 1860s through the 1880s, to help them remember family and celebrities.

Artifact

Carte-de-visite (Card photograph)

Subject Date

circa 1860

 On Exhibit

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

2012.0.5.14

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford

Material

Cardboard
Paper (Fiber product)

Technique

Albumen process

Color

Black-and-white (Colors)

Dimensions

Height: 4.125 in

Width: 2.438 in

Inscriptions

Text on back of carte reads: WARREN'S / Photographic Studio, / 289 WASHINGTON STREET, / DIRECTLY OPPOSITE JORDAN, MARSH & CO. BOSTON / (Up one flight of stairs only) / Under Superintendence of Mr. S. B. Heald Red bordered typed label adhered on back: 2483

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