[African American male civilian, half-length portrait, in coat and tie]

Archive record

1 photographic print on cabinet card ; 17 x 11 cm.

About this photograph

This cabinet card portrait presents an unidentified man in formal dress, photographed in a studio setting. The format was a popular one in the 1880s, when commercial studios produced such portraits for clients to display at home or exchange with family and friends.

Studio portraiture held particular significance in Black communities during this period. Sitting for a formal portrait was a deliberate assertion of dignity and standing, at a time when published images of African Americans were dominated by caricature. The absence of the sitter's name in the archive record reflects common cataloguing practice of the era, which frequently left Black sitters unidentified while recording the names of white subjects.

The photograph now resides in the Library of Congress collections as part of its holdings documenting American life in the late nineteenth century.

Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.

About the format

Rights & Attribution

Explore

More from the 1880s

[Tennessee Claflin, Lady Cook, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right]

1880

[Unidentified Civil War veteran with medals and G.A.R. Post No. 35, Wauseon, Ohio, ribbon]

1880

[James Holding, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly left]

1880

[James Graham, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly left]

1880

[Portrait of the Grant family above a piano in the Red Room of the White House]

1880

[Aleksandr Yagodkin, half-length portrait, facing slightly left]

1880