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[Thomas Edison, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left] – Historic Photo Reproduction

[Thomas Edison, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left], c1880. — historic photograph
[Thomas Edison, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left], c1880.. Historic photograph from the Work & Industry 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

[Thomas Edison, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left] comes to life in this historic photograph, reproduced from the original with every detail intact. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

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[Thomas Edison, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left]

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Thomas Edison sits in this head-and-shoulders study turned to the left, a pose that keeps his face in profile-leaning three-quarter view rather than the straight-on stare common in studio work of the period. The print was made around 1880 by Emil P. Spahn, a photographer in Newark, New Jersey, a city not far from Edison's laboratory at Menlo Park, where he was then developing the incandescent lamp. Portraits like this one circulated widely as cartes de visite and cabinet cards, helping make the inventor a public figure during the years his electric light was drawing national attention.

Created / publishedc1880.
Medium1 photographic print.
GenrePortrait photographs 1880.Photographic prints 1880.
NotesCopyright 1880 by Emil P. Spahn, Newark, New Jersey.
SubjectsEdison, Thomas A. (Thomas Alva),--1847-1931.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,010 × 1,536 px · prints to 3 × 5 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-169024

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