[Half-length portrait of an African American man facing right]

Archive record

1 photographic print on carte de visite mount : albumen ; 10 x 6 cm.

About this photograph

This carte de visite portrait was made by D. G. Lawton in 1870. The record identifies the sitter only as an African American man, preserving the photographer's name but not his subject's.

Studio portraiture held particular importance in Black communities during this period. Sitting for a formal photograph was a deliberate assertion of dignity at a time when published images of African Americans were dominated by caricature. The absence of the sitter's name here reflects common record-keeping practices of the era, which frequently left Black subjects unidentified while naming white ones.

Black-owned studios operated in many cities to serve clientele that white studios often refused or treated poorly, though the record does not indicate whether Lawton's studio was among them.

The carte de visite format, a small albumen print mounted on card stock, was the standard for portrait photography in this decade, widely collected and exchanged.

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

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