Chicago (Ill.) History

Chicago (Ill.) History To 1875

Portraits, American

Cabinet photographs

Portrait Photography

This is a 18" by 15.5" photographic print composite image of what appear to be 152 cabinet sized portrait photographs by C. D. (Charles Delevan) Mosher (1829-1897). The title comes from the information in the center frame on the lower level. It is reproduced here in low resolution, but to suggest the character of the image. One photograph taken from this and reproduced in a few books is that of Sylvester Lind (a founder of Lake Forest College and Lake Forest Academy, 1857-65; his is the farthest left-hand image, the fourth row down from the top. See the Chicago Portrait Index... reproduced in a pdf document here in item 3985.

The New York Times, March 5, 1885, from the Chicago Tribune, Feb. 28, 1885, described photographer C. D. Mosher's effort to photograph 10,000 Chicagoans by 1888 and then lock them (the photos, not the Chicagoans) in a courthouse vault, to be opened in 1976, for the second centennial, or bicentennial. By the time of this story early in 1886 he had accumulated over 5,700 images. There were to be sixteen categories of images, including this one, old settlers of Chicago. This 1876, centennial year compilation was an early product. See also: http://cabinetcardgallery.wordpress.com/category/photographer-mosher/