Historical Indulgences

ca. 1899,  “A Group of Schoolchildren and Their Teacher at the Zoo, Observing a Bison Eating”, Frances Benjamin Johnston

via the Smithsonian Photography Initiative

ca. 1840-80, “Caught Him at Last”

Pussy, when the rat she catches, 

Smooths him down with velvet paw,

Then for change his hide she scratches 

With her curved relentless claw. 

So it is in wedlock’s matches, 

Beauty leads us like a straw, 

Till she’s got us “under hatches”

—Then look out for Pussy’s law!

via the Philadelphia Library Company, Comic Valentine Collection

ca. 1897, “Jennie Dean Kershaw (Mrs. Samuel Murray)”, Thomas Eakins

via the Smithsonian Photographic Initiative, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

ca. 1895-96, “Sylvia Hatton: -And my skeleton! (inscribed)”, Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

via Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine 1880-1930, John Harley Warner and James M. Edmonson

ca. 1890, “Veiled Woman with Pearls”, Antoin Sevruguin

via the Smithsonian Photographic Initiative, Myron Bement Smith Collection

ca. 1898, “Cuba Libre”, [Union and confederate soldiers shaking hands in front of young female personification of Cuba with broken shackles], F.W. Guerin

via the Library of Congress, Miscellaneous Items in High Demand

ca. 1900, [two women grieve for newborn]

via the Burns Archive

[Late 19th or early 20th century tintype of a shirtless gentleman boxer?]

via Anonymous Works from Ebay

ca. 1865, “No. 333, Distortion of Left Lower Extremity After Gunshot Injury”

via the Museum of Photographic Arts Collections

ca. 1900, “Before Marriage”, “After Marriage”, The Whiting View Co.

via the Library of Congress, Stereographic Cards Collection

ca. 1861, “In defense of the Union and the Constitution”, P.S. Duval & Son

via the Library of Congress, Popular Graphic Arts Collection

ca. 1891, “Komodo Dragon and Keeper, Roy Jennier, at the National Zoo”, Thomas Smillie

via the Smithsonian Photographic Initiative, National Zoo Collection

ca. 1840-80, “Quack Doctor, Bleeder”

“I do not like you, Doctor Fell,”

Is an old line, as you’ve heard tell,

And sharply, still, the case it touches 

Of the foul quack, who says as much as,

“This is my game, let no one block it, 

Blood from arm— and from the pocket!”

via the Library Company of Philadelphia, McAllister Collection

ca. 1840-50’s, [occupational portrait]

via the Daguerreian Society, Mark Koenigsberg collection

ca. 1845, [Andrew Jackson at 78 years old, a few months before his death], Edward Anthony

Andrew Jackson became the first president to be photographed after rising from his sick bed for the opportunity. Later, Mathew Brady included a copy of Anthony’s daguerreotype in his own gallery in New York.

via Iconic Photos Wordpress