Historical Portrait
Portrait photograph of an unidentified couple
Archive record
1 slide : lantern ; 4 x 5 in. or smaller.
About this photograph
This lantern slide documents an unidentified couple, attributed to Arnold Genthe and dated to 1896. The format suggests it was intended for projection rather than print display.
Genthe worked in a soft-focus pictorialist style and opened a San Francisco studio in 1896, the same year this slide was made. After his death in 1942, the Library of Congress acquired approximately 20,000 items from his unclaimed studio materials.
The subjects remain anonymous. The archive record provides no names, occupations, or circumstances of the sitting. Lantern slides of this period were sometimes prepared for lectures or private viewing, though the record does not specify this slide's original purpose.
Without further documentation, the photograph stands as one portrait among thousands in Genthe's studio output, its subjects and occasion now lost to the archive.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
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