[Display of Dr. Robinson’s Balm of Tulips]
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.From the department store to the five-and-dime, new retail initiatives were reshaping American consumer culture in the years following the Civil War. Merchants competed for attention in increasingly aestheticized sales floors and shop windows, devising ornate arrangements like those seen here. Circulated on promotional cards, such photographs served a dual purpose: to advertise inventory and instruct local distributors in its display. No product was too humble for eye-catching exhibition: here a sore-solving elixir is presented with flair to rival the latest fashions.
Artwork Details
- Title: [Display of Dr. Robinson’s Balm of Tulips]
- Artist: A. H. Dinsmore (American, active 1880s)
- Date: ca. 1890
- Medium: Albumen silver print from glass negative
- Dimensions: Image: 5 3/8 in. × 4 in. (13.6 × 10.1 cm)
Mount: 6 7/16 in. × 4 3/16 in. (16.4 × 10.7 cm) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: William L. Schaeffer Collection, Promised Gift of Jennifer and Philip Maritz, in celebration of the Museum's 150th Anniversary
- Object Number: L.2019.57.427
- Curatorial Department: Photographs