Snapshots of the Past

Retouching portraits – Historic Photograph Print

Retouching portraits, c1889. — historic photograph
Retouching portraits, c1889.. Historic photograph from the Historic Print Archive collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This rare historic photograph captures Retouching portraits in remarkable detail. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

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Retouching portraits

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Published by the Littleton View Company of Littleton, New Hampshire, this stereograph, No. 1445, is titled *Retouching Portraits*. Its caption tracings file it under painters, occupations and humor, suggesting the card was meant to amuse as well as show a trade. Retouching was a skilled hand process in which the negative was pencilled and scraped to smooth lines and blemishes before printing, so sitters appeared more flattering than life. Cards like this were sold in quantity in the late 1880s and viewed through a hand stereoscope in parlors. The date is unverified, so treat c1889 as approximate.

Created / publishedc1889.
Medium1 photographic print on stereo card : stereograph.
SubjectsStereo by Littleton View Co., Littleton, N.H. No. 1445. cf. America's Yesterdays, p. 205. This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. Caption card tracings: Painters...; Courtship...--1889; Humor; Occupations; Shelf.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,421 × 1,536 px · prints to 5 × 5 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-138360

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