Each card in this Alphabet Montage was sent over the course of several months in 1904 to the anonymous female sitter of the portrait at center. Alphabetic postcards were popular at the turn of the nineteenth- and twentieth centuries. The Rotograph Company in New York published this set of cards. The twenty-six real-photo postcards, each of which features several images ( women organized within the card's specific letter, are inscribed with verses from Bayard Taylor's (1825-78) poem "Bedouin Love Song," originally published in his Poems of the Orient of 1854. Though its romantic flourishes were dated by 1904,Taylor's poem was an appropriate choice as a message sent to a distant loved one. Taylor was a foreign correspondent for the New York Tribune who produced most of his popular poetry and prose while traveling.
- Edition: #287
- Framed: 72.7 x 97 in
- Collections: Kingston Photo Collection