Feb 13 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2694 -

Sale 2694 - Lot 68

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
TOM HOWARD (1894-1961)
Execution of Ruth Snyder (the first woman to be executed and first photo of execution by electric chair). 1928; printed before 1936.
Silver press print, the image measuring 8½x6½ inches (21.6x16.5 cm.), with the Pacific and Atlantic Photos press agency's "P. and A. Photo." copyright notation in ink on recto, and its credit stamp on verso.

Exhibited
This image was exhibited in San Diego as part of the 1936 California Pacific International Exposition. The exhibition, titled Front Page highlighted events that had grabbed the front page of newspapers around the country between the years 1910 and 1935. The imagery focused primarily on the sensational, including gangsters, wrecks, murders, and accidents, and ranged from the bombing of the LA Times building to the Lindbergh Kidnapping.

Perhaps the most sensational was the photograph offered here, which was all the more astonishing for having been made in secret at Sing Sing by Howard, who managed to record Synder's moment of execution with a camera strapped to his ankle.
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