Guy Little Theatrical Photographs
1866
photographic
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1866
photographic
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Guy Little Theatrical Photographs is a 1866 photographic by Frederick Richard Window, a Impressionism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This photo is part of a set called Guy Little Theatrical Photographs. It’s a small albumen print on card, made from a glass negative in June 1866. The 1860s craze for actor photos meant studios like this churned out stacks of “cartes de visite” for fans. These tiny cards cost almost nothing and spread faces of stars everywhere. Check out the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection of Victorian photography.
This sepia photograph depicts Ellen Terry in her role as Helen in *The Hunchback* at the Olympic Theatre, produced as a carte de visite. The image is part of a larger collection of 19th-century theatrical photographs assembled by Guy Tristram Little, who later donated them to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The carte de visite format, popular in the 1860s, was an albumen print mounted on card, often collected as memorabilia. The photograph was removed from its original backing and preserved in an album before entering the museum’s holdings in the early 20th century.
Read the full account in the museum source.
