‘It was the people’s art’: exhibition explores mysteries of early American

photography
The New Art at the Met, an unusual array of photos taken between 1839 and 1910, reveals an
unexpected history
Photography expert and Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Jeff L Rosenheim believes that
cameras are profoundly entwined with the American story. “I’ve always been drawn to
photography because it has this baseline democratic principle,” he told me. “It arrived from
Europe in 1839, and what were we going to do with it? How did the camera play a role in us
becoming the country that we hoped we would become?”
Rosenheim sees cameras as furthering the anti-aristocratic principles that America was founded
on, in the process helping individuals own their identities and document their world. His new
exhibition at The Met, The New Art: American Photography, 1839–1910, aspires to give us new
ways of seeing precisely how that occurred. Dozens of portraits of everyday Americans
showcase a fascinating people’s history of the United States, while also revealing a middle class
deeply engaged in the process of discovering its identity, both as consumers and as participants
in this young, quickly developing democracy. “Photographic portraits play a role in people
feeling like they could be a citizen,” Rosenheim said. “It’s a psychological, empowering thing to
own your own likeness.”

Covering a period when the US was figuring out exactly what photography was for, The New
Art offers roughly 250 photographs that capture the day-to-day of the American experiment in
action. In their immediacy and their frankness, these photos offer new possibilities for recording
history that simply were not available before the invention of the camera. “The collection is just
filled with the everyday stories of people,” Rosenheim said, “and I don’t think painting can touch
that.”

Although The New Art does include pieces by some recognized giants of the genre, it is largely
composed of the handiwork of unremembered and anonymous creators. The works are
dominated by studio portraits – probably the only likeness of themselves a person of the era
would have owned for their entire lifetime. Viewers will also be surprised to see the kinds of
playful images that smack of people excited by the possibilities of a new creative toy.

The latter category would include a memorable, if somewhat random, shot of a cow in a field, a
dog standing on a chair and a sort of still life of a boot carefully placed into a roller skate.
Rosenheim was particularly enamored of the boot still life for the sheer strangeness of it all. “It’s
like, what is this picture, the mystery of this?” he told me. “The photographer had to solve a
problem to make a still-life composition, so I love this. It’s like this fantastic object, and it asks
more questions than it answers. In that, it’s very emblematic of the whole of 19th-century
American photography.”
Indeed, one of the delights of The New Art is seeing so much individuality and personality
brought to an era that is largely flattened into stereotypes of straitlaced veils and grim-faced
visages. Although there are plenty of portraits redolent of the gravity of a once-in-a-lifetime
event, there are also images that capture the true idiosyncrasy of the era: a shot of a man with his
pet squirrel, the word “welcome” spelled out in what appears to be fern leaves, a man in a
strange outfit simply labeled “Batman” and a portrait of a cat snuggling a rabbit. They hint at
hidden sides of US humanity that might well have been preserved in the historical record if
people of the time had been able to make permanent images as simply and thoughtlessly as we
can today.

“The social media aspect of our photography begins at its birth,” Rosenheim said. “Certainly in
the United States, it was the people’s art.”

The New Art also shows the turmoil of a still young nation amid the pains and throes of a
difficult coming of age. There are portraits of formerly enslaved individuals, including ones that
show scars from the period before freedom. There is the curiously modern portrait of Lewis
Payne, hands manacled as he awaits justice for conspiring to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.
There is a street scene from the frontier town of Brownsville, Texas, and numerous shots of
Native Americans. “This is a medium that came of age before the civil war,” Rosenheim said,
“then goes to that war, and is a part of Reconstruction and thereafter.”

The photographs that Rosenheim is exhibiting are drawn from the William L Schaeffer
collection, named for a largely unknown collector in rural Connecticut who amassed them over
the course of 50 years. Rosenheim has known Schaeffer for decades and has long wanted to
show his collection at the museum. “He just kept on putting away these photos like a squirrel,”
Rosenheim said. “Things that he didn’t know whether they were common or uncommon because
that history wasn’t told. He wasn’t buying most things at auction, he was finding them through
flea markets.”

The exciting thing for Rosenheim is that the Schaeffer collection doesn’t just add to the
collections of photographs that are already known – it opens up new frontiers in our
understanding of what photography can be. “It’s a very idiosyncratic collection,” he said, “and
it’s a canon-expanding production. What’s great about American photography is it’s an ever-
expanding canon.”

The New Art is a delightfully varied and continually surprising exhibition that hints at just how
much photographs may one day be able to show us, if collectors like Schaeffer and curators like
Rosenheim continue to find and bring them to the public.
“I hear Walt Whitman when I look at these pictures,” said Rosenheim. “singing the songs of the
people everywhere, whether it’s the butcher, the baker or the candlestick maker. That’s the
poignancy, that’s where the pathos of this exhibition really hits me.”

For questions 1 – 10, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best
according to the text.
1. What does Rosenheim mean when he says photography has a “baseline democratic
principle”?
A. Photography has always been accessible to professional artists only.
B. The camera was first used in royal courts before spreading to the public.
C. Photography allowed ordinary people to participate in recording history.
D. Early photographs were used mainly to document political leaders.
2. Why does Rosenheim describe photographic portraits as psychologically
empowering?
A. They allowed people to appear more attractive than in real life.
B. They helped individuals feel a sense of ownership over their identity.
C. They were expensive and seen as a luxury.
D. They represented an official governmental record of citizens.
3. According to the article, what distinguishes photography from painting, in
Rosenheim’s view?
A. Photography was easier to exhibit in museums.
B. Photographs were less expensive to produce than paintings.
C. Photography could capture the mundane and personal in a way painting could
not.
D. Paintings were typically more humorous and creative.
4. Why is the boot-in-a-roller-skate photograph especially significant to Rosenheim?
A. It shows the advanced technical skills of 19th-century photographers.
B. It demonstrates the formal composition rules of early photography.
C. It exemplifies the strange and creative spirit of early American photography.
D. It is the most famous image in the entire exhibition.
5. Which of the following best describes Rosenheim’s vision for The New Art
exhibition?
A. To showcase the evolution of photography into an elite art form.
B. To argue that photography is more important than painting in American history.
C. To highlight the role of photography in shaping everyday American identity.
D. To celebrate well-known photographers of the 19th century.
6. Why is the inclusion of playful or quirky images (e.g., a man labeled “Batman”)
important to the exhibition?
A. They confirm that early Americans were more humorous than previously
believed.
B. They show that studio photographers sometimes made mistakes.
C. They reveal a dimension of 19th-century life that counters rigid stereotypes.
D. They mock the seriousness of traditional historical portraits.
7. What does Rosenheim imply about the relationship between early photography and
modern social media?
A. Social media has degraded the quality of photography.
B. Early photography anticipated the casual self-expression of social media.
C. Early photographers tried to invent social media but failed.
D. Social media limits the impact of professional art photography.
8. What is significant about the William L Schaeffer collection, according to
Rosenheim?
A. It was the first collection to be digitized and preserved by The Met.
B. It focused exclusively on Native American communities.
C. It introduced mainstream audiences to famous 19th-century photographers.
D. It expands the canon by including lesser-known or anonymous works.
9. Why might the portrait of Lewis Payne be described as “curiously modern”?
A. It was digitally retouched to appear contemporary.
B. It captures emotion and ambiguity in a way associated with later portraiture.
C. It uses color photography, unlike other photos from the time.
D. It was staged as a parody of modern photography.
10. What does Rosenheim mean when he says, “I hear Walt Whitman when I look at
these pictures”?
A. The exhibition includes poetry that accompanies the photos.
B. The photos are literal illustrations of Whitman’s poetry.
C. The exhibition reflects Whitman’s celebration of everyday Americans.
D. The photos were inspired by Whitman’s personal journals.