Hudson Valley African Americans Photograph Album, ca. 1860s-1900s
25 photographs and 1 silhouette in 1 album
The Hudson Valley African Americans photograph album contains 25 photographic portraits and 1 silhouette portrait of African Americans in New York State’s Hudson Valley region.
The album (25.5 x 22 cm) has red and orange velvet covers with silver adornments and clasp while the pages are faux wood boards. Contents include 10 cabinet cards, 5 tintypes, 8 cartes de visite, 1 real photo postcard, 1 snapshot, and 1 silhouette. All or most subjects appear to be African American and include men, women, and children of a variety of ages. The silhouette shows a man in profile wearing a bowler hat smoking a cigar.
Images of particular note include portraits of an older man with a long beard, an older woman wearing black mourning clothing, a younger woman posing next to what appears to be some type of doll or taxidermied animal, a portrait of a woman taken by Pirie MacDonald on pg. 11 (produced at some point prior to MacDonald's decision to exclusively photograph men), and two carte de visite copies of a portrait of a bearded man with lighter skin.