Historical Portrait
Our family taken in summer of 1898
Archive record
1 photograph : glass negative; plate 13 x 10 cm (4 x 5 format) | Photograph shows the family of Jacob A. Riis, including a woman, probably Jacob's wife Elisabeth, seated, surrounded by five children, outside their home at Richmond Hill, Queens, New York.
About this photograph
The photograph shows Jacob A. Riis's family at their Richmond Hill, Queens home during the summer of 1898. The image includes a seated woman, probably Riis's wife Elisabeth, with five children.
Riis made the photograph on a glass plate negative. Gelatin dry plates had been commercially available since about 1878, allowing photographers to buy ready-made coated glass, expose it when convenient, and develop it later. This was a significant change from the earlier wet collodion process, which required coating, exposing, and developing a plate within roughly ten minutes and meant photographers had to transport darkroom equipment everywhere they worked. Glass plates remained common in professional photography well into the twentieth century because the material held its dimensions reliably.
The 13 by 10 centimetre plate produces what was known as a 4 by 5 format negative.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
Rights & Attribution
Explore
More from the 1890s
