Black and white photographic portrait of an unidentified young woman in an oval mount. The lady is wearing a dress with long, puff sleeves with velvet cuffs and a high collar highlighted by a string of pearls and matching earrings. A floral corsage is pinned to her dress and she is holding a straw hat decorated with roses. Her hair is tied half-back with a large ribbon and she has tight curls laying over her shoulders.
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Photography, as we know it today, was invented in the late 1830s by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in France. Niepce’s success led to rapid progression of technology in both cameras and film. Almost as soon as the medium was developed, portraits became a popular subject for photography. The availability and affordability of photographic portraits over painted portraits led to the proliferation of portraits taken in the nineteenth century across socioeconomic and geographic groups.
