Mar 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2697 -
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Sale 2697 - Lot 318

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(PHOTOGRAPHY.) Pair of photographs of Booker T. Washington from a visit to California. Pair of silver prints, 7¼ x 4¾ inches, on original Taber photographer mounts; the standing portrait with moderate foxing, and the formal portrait with incisions to the mount and a missing corner. [Oakland, CA, 14 January 1903?]
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Additional Details

These two portraits of Booker T. Washington were taken by the Taber studio of San Francisco, the Bay area's most noted photographers. One is a carefully posed and lit formal portrait; the other by contrast was taken while Washington was standing in a small urban back yard. Standing off balance as if fidgeting, with lightly clenched fists, he looks worried that he is about to miss a train.

A similar Taber photograph of Washington, apparently from the same day, appeared at a Cowan's auction on 3 December 2020, lot 151. That one was a group image taken at the home of famed Black whaling captain William T. Shorey (1859-1919) at 1774 Eighth Street in Oakland on 14 January 1903; Washington wears the same clothing as in the present photograph, and his hair is identical. The visit was described in the Oakland Tribune of 17 January 1903. Washington was at Shorey's home for a luncheon to conclude his visit to California; he left the gathering early to catch a train for Chicago.

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