Mary Anderson as Galatea (1880s)

Mary Anderson was an American actress. In 1875, she made her first stage appearance at a benefit performance at Macauley’s Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky in the role of Shakespeare’s Juliet.

In 1883 she starred in an American production of W. S. Gilbert’s Pygmalion and Galatea, that is is a blank verse play by W. S. Gilbert in three acts based on the Pygmalion story. Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory, his statue was so beautiful and realistic that he fell in love with it.

she went on the London stage at the Lyceum Theatre, remaining in England for six years to perform to much acclaim including at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon. Her first season there, she starred in Gilbert’s Comedy and Tragedy as well as in Romeo and Juliet in 1884. In 1887 in London she appeared in The Winter’s Tale in the double role of Perdita and Hermione (the first actress to include this innovation). This production ran to 160 performances, and was taken back to the United States.

 

American actress Mary Anderson (1859-1940) as Galatea in W. S. Gilbert’s Pygmalion and Galatea. Photographed by Napoleon Sarony (1821-1896) via

Mary Anderson (1897 – 1986) as Galatea. She was an American actress, who appeared in 77 silent films between 1914 and 1923. Photo by Henry van der Weyde (1838-1924) via

Mary Anderson as Galatea, in “Pygmalion and Galatea”. Photo by Sarony via

Mary Anderson as Galatea in Pygmalion and Galatea via

 

Alva Vanderbilt at the Vanderbilt Ball (1883)

Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt (neé Alva Erskine Smith). 1883. Museum of the City of New York. X2012.96.2.2.Mora (b. 1849). Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt (neé Alva Erskine Smith). 1883. Museum of the City of New York. X2012.96.2.2. via

A Collection of Victorian “Carte de Visites”

The carte de visite was a type of small photograph which was patented in Paris by photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854.  It was a small, cheap portrait format which made photography available to the masses.

It was usually made of an albumen print, which was a thin paper photograph mounted on a thicker paper card.

The Carte de Visite was slow to gain widespread use until 1859, when Disdéri published Emperor Napoleon III’s photos in this format. This made the format an overnight success.

The new invention was so popular it was known as “cardomania”and it spread throughout Europe and then quickly to America and the rest of the world.

The immense popularity of these card photographs led to the publication and collection of photographs of prominent persons.

Each photograph was the size of a visiting card, and such photograph cards were traded among friends and visitors.

Albums for the collection and display of cards became a common fixture in Victorian parlors.

By the early 1870s, cartes de visite were supplanted by “cabinet cards,” which were also usually albumen prints, but larger, mounted on cardboard backs.

Contemporary carte de visite, 1860s via

Victorian carte de visite circa 1880s via

One of the first cartes de visite of Queen Victoria taken by photographer John Jabez Edwin Mayall via

Napoléon III and his wife Eugenie, cartes de visite by Disderi, circa 1865 via

Carte de visite photograph of Ella Wesner, circa 1872, the most celebrated male impersonator of the Gilded Age Vaudeville circuit. via

 1860s original/vintage albumen carte de visite of a lovely young California bride in her flowing white wedding dress taken by the pioneer daguerreotypist from San Francisco, William Shew via

Lillian Russell as Patience (1882)

Patience is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera is a satire on the aesthetic movement of the 1870s and ’80s in England and, more broadly, on fads, superficiality, vanity, hypocrisy and pretentiousness; it also satirizes romantic love, rural simplicity and military bluster. Photo: Lillian Russell as Patience at the Bijou Opera House in New York, 1882 via

Washington D. C. (c. 1881-89)

JAMES P. JARVIS Publisher SMITHSONIAN, NAT. MUSEUM and CAPITAL 135 Penna. Ave Washington D. C. c. 1881-89. Albumen boudoir cabinet card via

View From The Palace Hotel Tucson, Arizona (1880)

CARLETON E. WATKINS (1829 – 1916) THE CITY OF TUCSON, ARIZONA TER. AKA – VIEW FROM THE PALACE HOTEL TUCSON, ARIZONA, 1880 via

Photographs feat. Samurais (ca. 1880s)

Unknown, Photograph of a Samurai in full armor, wielding a bow and arrow. Attributed to Kimbei, c. 1880 via

Unknown Photograph of a Samurai  standing on a woodland path, outfitted with swords and full armor, wearing a rain cape and holding a jingasa, c. 1880 via

 

Gorgeous Portrait of a Victorian era Woman (1880s)

Unknown, Victorian era photograph portrait of a woman, 1880s via

Victorian Photogravures of English actress Ellen Terry (1887)

Dame Alice Ellen Terry, GBE (1847 – 1928), known professionally as Ellen Terry, was an English actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and toured throughout the British provinces in her teens.

At 16 she married the 46-year-old artist George Frederic Watts, but they separated within a year. She soon returned to the stage but began a relationship with the architect Edward William Godwin and retired from the stage for six years. She resumed acting in 1874 and was immediately acclaimed for her portrayal of roles in Shakespeare and other classics.

In 1878 she joined Henry Irving’s company as his leading lady, and for more than the next two decades she was considered the leading Shakespearean and comic actress in Britain. Two of her most famous roles were Portia in The Merchant of Venice and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. She and Irving also toured with great success in America and Britain.

Photogravure of English actress, Ellen Terry (1847-1928) as Marguerite in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, Act III, Scene I, 1887 via

Photogravure of English actress, Ellen Terry (1847-1928) as Portia in William Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I., 1887 via

Lillie Langtry (1890)

Lillie Langtry by York & Son, after Elliott & Fry glass lantern slide, 1890s (1880s) © National Portrait Gallery, London via