Washington, D.C. Scurlock Studio, [circa 1906-7].
Sold
Unbound. Silver chloride boudoir portrait photograph. Image size is approximately 4" x 5.5" mounted on 6.75" x 10.5" thick cardstock. Decorative blindstamp on card beneath the image. Stamp on verso of Scurlock Studio's 1202 T Street location. Dunbar has Signed the card on the lower right hand side beneath his photograph. Some wear to the corners, remains of old small tack holes at extremities of two corners of the card and center bottom, very good. Dunbar's signature a little faded but easily readable. Probably contemporary owner's name ("M. L. Bush, West Chester, Pa.) on verso.
Addison Scurlock was an African-American photographer born in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1883. He began his photographic apprenticeship with Rice Studio in Washington, DC in 1900. By 1904 he was executing commission portraits on his own at the house of his parents on S street. His studio address on this Dunbar photograph is T Street, which places the date sometime between 1906 -1907 (Dunbar died in 1908). Scurlock's studio grew to become 'the' place for African-Americans to sit for portraits, and the business carried on for over 90 years, until the deaths of his sons. Among other things, the firm taught the art of photography, most notably to a young Jacqueline Bouvier, who would become the “Inquiring Camera Girl” for the *Washington Times-Herald* before marrying John F. Kennedy. The archive of the firm is now regarded as an invaluable resource for the history of the African-American community in Washington DC. The Dunbar portrait was taken during the earliest period of the firm's existence.
We have handled books and letters signed by Dunbar, but have never seen a signed photograph offered for sale.
Item #421721
