Mary and Susan B. Anthony
Photograph
Mary and Susan B. Anthony
ca. 1897
Matte collodion silver print
Image: 5 13/16 × 4 1/4 in. (14.8 × 10.8 cm)
Mount: 7 5/16 × 5 3/16 in. (18.6 × 13.2 cm)
Gift of Merritt Mosher
1976.0049.0018
Inscriptions Inscribed in black ink on recto, C: 1827 - Apr. 2 - 1897 # 1820 - Feb. 15 - 1897
Embossed on card mount, BC: J. H. Kent [decorative initials] 48 East Ave. \ ROCHESTER, N.Y.
Embossed on card mount, BC: J. H. Kent [decorative initials] 48 East Ave. \ ROCHESTER, N.Y.
TextBy the mid-1800s, collecting photographs of celebrities had become a popular pastime. Individuals often compiled card-mounted photographs of politicians, actors, activists (such as the women pictured in these photographs), and other notable people into albums alongside photographs of their own family members and friends. Abolitionist and activist Sojourner Truth recognized the power of photography to connect celebrity likenesses with social messages. She capitalized on the craze by copyrighting her own image and then selling the photographs to support speaking tours on which she addressed the abolition of slavery and advocated for women’s rights. The slogan she had printed on the mounts (“I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance”) made it clear that the sales of her image directly helped her cause.
—Label text, History of Photography [Rotation 15]
—Label text, History of Photography [Rotation 15]
