Artheon MuseumArtheonMuseum

Street Advertising

Street Advertising by John Thomson (British, 1837–1921)

Medium

woodburytype

Classification

Photograph

Department

Photography

Museum

Cleveland Museum of Art

Credit

Gift of Sharon & Del Zogg in honor of Wendy Watriss and Frederick C. Baldwin (1929-2021), co-founders of Fotofest, Houston, Texas

Accession Number

2022.78

Rights

Public Domain

Tags

male

About this artwork

The poster being pasted up by the two men in the late 1870s is an ad for Mme. Tussaud’s London, a museum of wax figures that is still in business today. The image was part of John Thomson’s publication Street Life in London, a group of essays and photographsthat was one of the first published compilations of social documentary photographs. It holds a place of honor in the histories of photography, the book, ethnology, and sociology.

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