Here is a remarkably well-preserved CDV of Arthur Cleveland Coxe, the second Episcopal bishop of New York. He was also known as a poet, and from the titles and descriptions of the works, he sounds like a typical mid-19th century American author, which is to say long-winded and basically unreadable to today’s audiences. This must have been a well-known image of him; if you go to Wikipedia to read his biography, you’ll see a copy of this same portrait.
Another CDV of a circus freak, this is Landon Middlecoff, “The Kentucky Giant”, as photographed by Charles Eisenmann, “the Popular Photographer” and documentarian of the theater trade.
Here are two more recent acquisitions- another in the same series of Nellie Keeler on the sideboard at Bogardus’ studio in New York-
And one of the Rice Family (“two sisters and a brother, born Germany, aged 35, 24, 33” [from left to right in the image])
Here’s another CDV from the Alexander Gardner studio. It’s a card-size copy of an architectural rendering of St. Paul’s Church here in Washington DC. The Architect is Emlen T. Littell, 111 Broadway, New York. I’ve done a little digging and can’t find a current St. Paul’s church that looks like this – there are a number of St. Paul’s churches in the DC area, but the ones I could find in the most probable parts of town for the time period don’t look anything like this, nor do they mention the architect – and several of them do mention the architect who designed their building.
Emlen Littell was a prominent ecclesiastical architect in the 2nd half of the 19th century, working mostly in New York and Philadelphia. He became president of the American Institute of Architects. One of his most famous designs is the Church of the Incarnation in New York City, which had many famous parishioners including Admiral David Farragut and Eleanor Roosevelt. FDR’s mother’s funeral was held there as well. It has windows designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany among other well-known Victorian artists.
Here’s a charming little anonymous CDV of Rugerson & Hodges’ General Store and Post Office. No location given – maybe Pennsylvania or somewhere in New England? If anyone out there in internet land has any idea of the location, feedback would be much appreciated.
This is another Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren image, this time by Masury, of Boston.
Mr. Lowande doesn’t look particularly happy to be having his picture taken. But that combination of tights and skirt not only look uncomfortable, I suspect wearing them outside the carnival tent would tend to challenge the masculinity of all but the most self-confident of men. This CDV is probably by D.J. Wilkes of Baltimore – although there is no identification on this card, the image is identical in all but pose (same outfit, same props) to another one I found online with the photographer’s imprint. I’m having a devil of a time finding more specific information about Mr. Lowande – most of the references I find for that name refer to an equestrian performer (that may be the same Tony Lowande, but I’m not sure), and the dates would seem to be later (that Tony Lowande was born in 1869 according to Olympians of the Sawdust Circle) and part of a famous family of Brazilian-American circus performers. Or it could be just that everything else about the photo aside from the name and photographer’s ID is wrong – Tony Lowande might just have been a five year old boy in this photo, and not a midget. I could also not find any reference to Siegrist’s Midgets, but that doesn’t mean anything per se.
Here is the Bowen family; Eli, his wife and child. The man with feet but no legs!
Sorry folks, but I’m just too tired today to put out any effort to research Mr. Bowen and say anything meaningful. Just enjoy the carte?
In my online shopping peregrinations, I came across another Nellie Keeler CDV, so of course I had to add the second varietal to my collection. The captions have it that these are one year apart. Who knows the truth of such things, as so many facts about the circus freak sideshow performers were grossly exaggerated for dramatic effect.
Here is the first one I collected, for comparison:
And somewhat ironically, here is a larger size (roughly 5×7) Cabinet Card of a much larger woman, seated in front of the same dining room sideboard on which Nellie Keeler is posing. When I saw that, I had to grab it just for that cool factor of coincidence. I’d read a lot about how work of battlefield photographers could be connected if not identified by the use of the same backdrops, furniture and even prop weapons/uniforms in Civil War tintypes. While not exactly the same thing, this is my first instance of finding the same props in two different photos of two VERY different subjects by the same photographer.
And last but not least (well, maybe least, based on the factoids on the front of the card) is Admiral Dot – yet another Barnum embellishment with an exalted military rank for someone of restrained stature. A contemporary of General Tom Thumb, Commodore Nutt, Major Atom, Count Rosebud and Baron Littlefinger, he also performed in sideshows.
As the photographer is not credited, it may well have been one of the lesser-known New York studios specializing in the theatrical trade who was able to work a deal with Anthony to distribute their cards.
I was able to kill two birds with one stone on this image – I found an Alexander Gardner CDV (which is rare in itself!) and an image nearly identical to a Mathew Brady version I had seen, but in better overall condition, for the same money as the Brady. So now I have two official Gardners.
dcphotoartist 