Snapshots of the Past

Thomas Alva Edison at 14 years of age, 1/2, seated, facing slightly right – Vintage Print

Thomas Alva Edison at 14 years of age, 1/2, seated, facing slightly right, [no date recorded on caption card] — historic photograph
Thomas Alva Edison at 14 years of age, 1/2, seated, facing slightly right, [no date recorded on caption card]. 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

Step back in time with Thomas Alva Edison at 14 years of age, 1/2, seated, facing slightly right, a historic photograph rich in period detail. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.

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Thomas Alva Edison at 14 years of age, 1/2, seated, facing slightly right

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A seated portrait of Thomas Alva Edison at about 14 is an unusual survival, since photographs of him as a boy are scarce. The image is a cyanotype, a cheap process that produces the distinctive blue-and-white print more often associated with copies and technical reproductions than with studio portraits. Edison was born in 1847, so the sitting would fall in the early 1860s, a period when he was working as a railway newsboy and learning telegraphy, skills that would lead to his later career as an inventor. The caption card that accompanies the print gives no date, so its exact timing remains unconfirmed.

Created / published[no date recorded on caption card]
Medium1 photographic print : cyanotype.
NotesThis record contains unverified, old data from caption card. Caption card tracings: PI; Shelf.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,206 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-131404

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