Portraits: Photographies des Heimathloses
Bound volume
Portraits: Photographies des Heimathloses
Portraits: Photographies des Heimatloses
Portraits: photographs of the homeless
1853
Bound volume with lithographs
Overall: 8 × 6 7/8 × 1 1/2 in. (20.3 × 17.4 × 3.8 cm)
Purchase
1976.0091.0001-0180
DescriptionFrom 1852 to 1853, on behalf of the city government, Bern lithographer and photographer Carl Durheim made approximately 240 photographic portraits of homeless and itinerant individuals incarcerated in the city’s prison. The portraits were intended to assist the Swiss police in tracing, apprehending, and deporting vagrants. Early in his commission, Durheim made several portraits using the daguerreotype process before switching to the calotype and finally to the wet collodion processes. Lithographs were subsequently made from 228 of the portrait photographs. These were circulated as thirty eight numbered lithographic plates (Tafeln) printed with six portraits per sheet. Each lithographic portrait is accompanied by a caption which includes information such as the pictured individual's given and family names, aliases, age, profession, and place of origin.
Portraits: Photographies des Heimthloses contains lithographic portraits cut from the plates and bound into two volumes. Dated 1853, the first volume consists of the 180 portraits printed on plates one through thirty. The leaves of portraits have been numbered one through 180 in stencil. At the rear of the volume, a 48-page ledger is bound in. The ledger consists of an alphabetized list of the names of the individuals depicted in the portraits along with “observations” noting his or her movements. Some of the leaves are also annotated with such information.
Portraits: Photographies des Heimthloses contains lithographic portraits cut from the plates and bound into two volumes. Dated 1853, the first volume consists of the 180 portraits printed on plates one through thirty. The leaves of portraits have been numbered one through 180 in stencil. At the rear of the volume, a 48-page ledger is bound in. The ledger consists of an alphabetized list of the names of the individuals depicted in the portraits along with “observations” noting his or her movements. Some of the leaves are also annotated with such information.
Inscriptions Inscribed and dated in ink on spine label: Portraits \ Photographies \ des \ Heimathloses \ 1853
See alsoSee also
