[Ferdinand Lassalle, 1825-1864, bust portrait]

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Ferdinand Lassalle (1825-1864) was a German lawyer and socialist organizer who helped found the General German Workers' Association in 1863, and this halftone reproduction shows him in a bust-length pose that suits a man better known for speeches and pamphlets than for any single public act. Halftone printing, which broke photographs into tiny dots so they could be reproduced on a printing press, became common in newspapers and books in the late 1800s, so this image likely circulated in that wider print culture rather than existing only as a single photograph. Lassalle died in a duel in 1864 at age 39, a death that made him a martyr to many of his followers. The caption card records no date, so the exact year of this printing remains uncertain.

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