In his time, Napoleon Sarony was considered one of the world’s greatest portrait photographers. He specialized in portraits of actors, which he mass produced as cheap cartes-de-visite, and other types of cards. Their popularity with the public reflected the new interest in theater and celebrity that emerged in America after the Civil War. Sarony, born in Canada, began his career in New York as a lithographer but, at a time when the art of photography was still very new, went to Europe for training. He established his first studio in New York City in 1866, but in only a few years was able to open a larger studio in the city’s Union Square.
Napoleon Sarony took this photograph of Alla Nazimova in the English-language performance of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. Alla Nazimova (1879–1945) was born Mariam Edez Adelaida Leventon in Yalta, Crimea, to…
When this ostensibly quiet scene was photographed, Morocco was in the throes of a struggle for independence against its French occupiers. The uprising was becoming increasingly violent, with riots…
Though discovered in a private home in Beersheba, this 9.5-inch-high × 11.5-inch-wide (24 cm × 29.5 cm) pot, or its contents, was probably dedicated to the sanctuary. The inscription kodesh or kadosh…