Fotomontage van 13 Amerikaanse senatoren before 1871

This is Edric Eaton's photomontage of thirteen American senators, likely produced sometime in the 1870s or 80s, in the style of a page in a commemorative book. The carefully arranged portraits, printed in sepia, invite us to consider the culture of political representation in late 19th-century America. The choice of the photomontage technique creates meaning by visually associating these men, all presumably powerful politicians, with the then-new medium of photography, seen at the time as a modern, progressive technology of documentation and record. In what ways, we might ask, does the photograph influence how we look at politicians? How does the combination of portraiture and political office affect the viewer? To learn more, historians might consult archives of photographs, newspapers, and political ephemera, as well as institutional records of galleries and publishers from this period. Understanding the visual culture of this era is crucial to interpreting the social and political life of the time.