Historical Portrait
Kahlil Gibran with Book
Archive record
Historic 1896 portrait of young Lebanese immigrant Kahlil Gibran at age 14, who became renowned poet and author of The Prophet. Public domain photograph.
About this photograph
Young Kahlil Gibran at fourteen, photographed by F. Holland Day in 1896. Gibran was a Lebanese immigrant who would later write The Prophet.
Day made this portrait during the period when roughly twenty million people reached the United States, most from southern and eastern Europe. The federal station at Ellis Island had opened four years earlier. Studio portraits marked that journey, made at home to leave with family or made after arrival and sent back as proof of safe passage and employment.
Gibran arrived as part of this wave, one among millions. The photograph captures him in his early years in America, before the literary career that would make his name widely known.
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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