Profiles of the photographers illustrate their careers by exploring how they began, what theirstudios looked like from within, what the details were of running their own studios, and whateach studio’s visual output was annually. Their featured photos varied in form – –
daguerreotype, tintype, carte de visite, and more – – subjects included mostly Civil War
portraits, postmortem photography, and landscape photography. Katherine Manthornecontinues, “This welcome resource fills in gaps in photographic American women’s history andconvincingly lays out the parallels between the growth of photography as an available mediumand the late-19 th -century women’s movement.”The Table of Contents divides the rich, meticulously researched, well-documentedinformation into eight segments, Introduction; the Pioneers & Evolving PhotographicTechniques; the Civil War Era; Family Matters; A Visit to A Women’s Portrait Studio; Outdoors:Landscape & Architecture; The New Woman & Women’s Rights; and, Conclusion, “A NewPhotographic Era Dawns: “The Kodak Girl”. Two excellent Appendices are also thoughtfullyincluded, 1.“How a Woman Makes Landscape Photographs” by Eliza W. Washington.“Philadelphia Photographer”, 1876, and 2. “What a Woman Can Do with a Camera” by FrancesBenjamin Johnston. “Ladies Home Journal,” 1897.On an open more personal note, Katherine, regarding your inevitable future book designimprovements, please allow this reviewer-author of over 80 titles to friendly suggest, (1.) youmust never allow your book of splendid narrative-style writing acquiesce to design-layouteditors arguing on behalf of “postage-stamp” size photos. in this one, not even digitized orlaser-scanned for crystal-clear sharpness. Here, photos are placed in the easy flowing text soreduced in size from the original that the faces of the human being participants represented arehardly distinguishable! (2) then, insist your publisher add a quality removeable magnifying glassfrom a pocket in the Appendices as a gift to read the miniature print in your extraordinary
bibliography and precious notes.
