Series I: Photographs

Series I holds 1,021 5 x 7 inch gelatin silver prints made from the glass plate negatives in Series III. The prints are undated, but were probably made between 1911, when Emily Jackson had already acquired Édouart's silhouette albums, and the mid-1920s when she was selling photographs to the public through her catalogue. The photographs came to the society in her old glass plate negative boxes, each of which had a paper label inscribed with the box's contents (the sheet/photograph numbers) and the note "Prints 1st set," which would indicate that they may be closer in date to 1911.

Each sheet of silhouettes was numbered consecutively from 1 to 1052, with the addition of an occasional "a" and "b" sheet, and had that figure inscribed (presumably by Jackson) in the upper center of the sheet. These numbers do not coordinate with Édouart's original album or album page numbers; the latter can be seen in the upper right corner of some of the sheets. Each photograph is inscribed its verso in ink with the information that Édouart wrote under each figure, which is sometimes legible in the picture itself but far easier to read on the verso. There is not a photograph for every one of the numbered sheets and there are negatives for which there are not original photographs; the box and folder list following this records the number of each sheet for which there was an original photograph or negative present when the collection was processed in 2003.

New-York Historical Society staff members have annotated copies of the Jackson and Vernay sales catalogues with Jackson's inventory (Édouart sheet) number; these publications provide name and hometown access to the figures in the photographs. They can be consulted in the Society's Print Room.