Historical Portrait
Fletcher, Mr., copy portrait photograph
Archive record
1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in.
About this photograph
This glass plate negative preserves a copy portrait of a Mr. Fletcher, made by Arnold Genthe in 1906. The record gives no further detail about the sitter.
Genthe worked in the soft-focus pictorialist style and kept a studio in San Francisco from 1896 to 1911. This portrait dates to the middle of that San Francisco period. After Genthe's death in 1942, the Library of Congress acquired roughly 20,000 items from his unclaimed studio, including several thousand studio portraits alongside his better-known work documenting San Francisco's Chinatown and photographing dancers.
The designation "copy portrait" indicates Genthe reproduced an existing photograph rather than sitting Fletcher for an original session. Such copying was a common studio service in the early twentieth century, when clients needed duplicates of family photographs or wanted to preserve deteriorating originals.
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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