Historical Portrait
Smith, Bessie, portrait photographs
Archive record
1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in.
About this photograph
This glass negative portrait dates from Arnold Genthe's San Francisco period. Genthe kept a studio there from 1896 to 1911 before relocating to New York.
The record attributes the photograph to 1906 and identifies the subject as Bessie Smith. However, no context material confirms the identity or circumstances of the sitter. The record itself does not elaborate on who this person was or why the portrait was made.
The negative became part of the Library of Congress collection after Genthe's death in 1942, when his unclaimed studio materials were acquired. That acquisition brought roughly 20,000 items into the archive, including several thousand studio portraits alongside Genthe's better-known work documenting San Francisco's Chinatown, dance subjects, and colour autochromes.
Genthe worked in the soft-focus pictorialist style throughout a four-decade career. This negative represents his work during the San Francisco years, before his 1911 move east.
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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