[Man Holding Patent Office Book]

Attributed to Oliver H. Willard American

ca. 1857

Not on view

O. H. Willard was active in Philadelphia, producing stereo views, cartes-de-visite, ambrotypes, and daguerreotypes. He remains a relatively obscure early practitioner of the wet plate and salted paper processes. The weighty patent-office book may have belonged to the unknown sitter, or it may simply have been a prop supplied by the artist to steady the sitter's hands. Like many men of this period, the sitter perhaps had his portrait made as a remembrance for family members prior to a move west, or perhaps to commemorate the award signified by the ribbon proudly pinned to his shirt. His direct gaze and plain clothing, and the slight stiffness of his pose, speak to the artless nobility of the common man, a theme celebrated by Walt Whitman, who portrayed himself as a similar figure in the frontispiece of his inaugural book of poems, Leaves of Grass (1855).

Artwork Details

Title: [Man Holding Patent Office Book]
Artist: Attributed to Oliver H. Willard (American, active 1850s–70s, died 1875)
Date: ca. 1857
Medium: Salted paper print from glass negative
Dimensions: 21.6 x 16.5 cm (8 1/2 x 6 1/2 in. )
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1999
Object Number: 1999.185
Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

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Artillery, Quartermaster Sergeant, Oliver H. Willard American, Albumen silver print from glass negative with applied color — Artillery, Quartermaster Sergeant
Oliver H. Willard
1866

Artillery, Musician, Oliver H. Willard American, Albumen silver print from glass negative with applied color — Artillery, Musician
Oliver H. Willard
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Fatigue, Marching Order, Oliver H. Willard American, Albumen silver print from glass negative with applied color — Fatigue, Marching Order
Oliver H. Willard
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Light Artillery, Sergeant Major, Oliver H. Willard American, Albumen silver print from glass negative with applied color — Light Artillery, Sergeant Major
Oliver H. Willard
1866

Ordnance, Private, Oliver H. Willard American, Albumen silver print from glass negative with applied color — Ordnance, Private
Oliver H. Willard
1866

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