The Female Photographers of Old New York City

Imagine yourself back in the 1860s. You want to have your portrait taken and hope to avoid the city’s famous and expensive (male) photographers. So you seek out some of the female photographers that friends have mentioned: the studio of Matilda Moore on Canal Street, Mrs. Wolf in Brooklyn, and many others listed in the New York City Directory. This illustrated presentation recreates a visit to a few of the hundreds of largely unrecognized woman photographers who worked in New York and in cities across the United States in those early days of the medium. We follow each stage of the experience: arriving in the waiting room, being arranged in the posing chair, being “shot” by Matilda Moore operating the old box camera, obtaining the final images and inserting them in the family album. For more events like this, become an Untapped New York Insider! https://untappedcities.com/become-a-member/