Visual Materials
The collection contains photographic prints and corresponding glass plate negatives by American photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston that focus on the portrait work of Johnston's earlier career in Washington, DC, mainly in the 1890s. The collection also contains interpositive copies of the glass plate negatives produced by The Huntington sometime during the mid to late twentieth century. The photographic prints and glass plate negatives were hand-selected by Johnston for The Huntington based on their "historical interest or value" and include many autographed prints. The prints are largely cyanotypes, with a few gelatin silver and platinum prints. Also included alongside Johnston's original prints are copy prints made by The Huntington at a later date. The collection is largely made up of Johnstons portraits of Washington, DC, socialites, politicians, artists, and more. In addition to that, there are photographs Johnston made for articles about government buildings and architectures, copies Johnston made of Matthew Brady's daguerreotypes, copies of State Department archives and War Department images, views of Bell Telephone Company instruments, and images of Abraham Lincoln objects and ephemera intended to illustrate Ida Tarbell's Life of Lincoln. Additional inventories are included that list subjects arranged first by title and then by last name.
photCL 352
