The Dramatic Shoe-Black
John Thomson
1877
Medium
Woodburytype, from the album "Street Life in London"
Dimensions
Image/paper: 8.9 × 11.5 cm (3 9/16 × 4 9/16 in.); Mount: 27.1 × 20.9 cm (10 11/16 × 8 1/4 in.)
Classification
photograph
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
215533
About the Artist
John Thomson · 1837–1921
John Thomson (1837–1921), a pioneering Scottish photographer, was born on 14 June 1837 in Edinburgh as the eighth of nine children to William Thomson, a tobacco spinner and trader, and Isabella Newlands.) After schooling in the early 1850s, he apprenticed with a local optical and scientific instrument manufacturer, where he mastered the principles of photography, completing his training around 185...