Edwin Booth, 1885

THF210137 / Edwin Booth, 1885
01

Artifact Overview

Professional photographers began producing cabinet cards in 1867. Consumers quickly preferred them over earlier cartes-de-visite, which were mounted on smaller cardboard stock. Through the early 1900s, Americans commonly exchanged and collected cabinet photographs of family, friends and celebrities. This 1885 example from Napoleon Sarony's New York City studio depicts Edwin Booth, a famous Shakespearean actor.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Cabinet photograph

Subject Date

1885

Location

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

34.603.1

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Material

Paper (Fiber product)
Cardboard

Technique

Gelatin silver process
Mounting

Color

Black-and-white (Colors)

Dimensions

Height: 6.438 in
Width: 4.25 in

Inscriptions

front, printed: Sarony 57 Union Sqr., N.Y. front, handwritten: EDWIN BOOTH (Handwritten on front, below image) verso, handwritten: TO MARTIN DRAKE ESQ. EDWIN BOOTH FEB. '85 (1885) [Handwritten in ink on verso]