KEYNOTE #2: Matilda Moore: Photographer of Civil War Era New Yorkers
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
8-3-2025 4:45 PM
Description
Dr. Katherine Manthorne, Professor Emerita of Art History, City University of New York – Graduate Center, New York City, U.S.A.
Matilda Moore: Photographer of Civil War Era New Yorkers
“Mrs. Moore,” as she stamped her work, ran a thriving photographic parlor in New York City at 421 Canal Street – between Varick and Sullivan Streets – from 1857 to 1883. Reinserting Matilda Moore (born ca. 1832) into this era of photographic pioneers presents a distinct challenge. Often there are traces of long-forgotten artistic reputations, but the bodies of work have scattered. Moore, by contrast, left little written record and is known primarily through 100 or so surviving images, mostly cartes de visite (compared to 200,000 by leading male contemporary Abraham Bogardus). Over time she changed her logo from a cartouche to an eagle surrounded by a garland, all the while building the reputation of her studio. This branding of female identity forces us to grapple with the profile of a middle-class white women immersed in the world of urban commercial photography.
This brief paper adopts a dual perspective. We survey Moore’s known photographic output and the demographics of her clientele in the context of the demand for likenesses, fuelled by the Civil War. Simultaneously we document the economics of her studio operations and her role as mentor to two male assistants, who went on to have noteworthy careers. This outwardly conventional woman set up her establishment side-by-side with male competitors on one of the most heavily trafficked streets of one of the busiest cities in the world and succeeded as a businesswoman/ photographer.
Dr. Katherine Manthorne is a Professor Emerita of art history at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She committed to the study of the art of the Americas (1800-1940) in its hemispheric dimensions. Landscape imagery is a special passion, embodied in publications from Tropical Renaissance. North American Artists Exploring Latin America, 1839-1879 (1989) and Traveler Artists: Landscapes of Latin America from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection (2015) to California Mexicana: Missions to Murals, 1820 to 1930 (2017) and The Rockies and the Alps: Bierstadt, Calame and the Romance of the Mountains (2017). The Caribbean figures in Fern Hunting Among These Picturesque Mountains. Frederic Edwin Church in Jamaica (2010); Nueva York (2010); and Caribbean Crossroads (2012).
Working toward the internationalization of American art, she taught courses at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, Italy; and the Freie Universität, Berlin; and co-organized transnational conferences including Landscape Art of the Americas: Sites of Human Intervention Across the Nineteenth Century at the Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia (2021).
Women’s contributions to visual culture constitutes another theme in her work featured in two books: Women in the Dark: American Female Photographers 1850-1900 (2020) and Restless Enterprise: The Art and Life of Eliza Pratt Greatorex (2020).
Intermediality is another interest explored in Film and Modern American Art: The Dialogue Between Cinema and Painting (2019). She received fellowships from Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Fulbright and Smithsonian Institution. Currently projects include Sweet Fortunes: Sugar Plantations, Art Collecting and Enslaved Labor; and Fidelia Bridges: Between Fine Art & Popular Culture.
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
Manthorne, Katherine, "KEYNOTE #2: Matilda Moore: Photographer of Civil War Era New Yorkers" (2025). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025. 49.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2025/schedule/49
KEYNOTE #2: Matilda Moore: Photographer of Civil War Era New Yorkers
Dr. Katherine Manthorne, Professor Emerita of Art History, City University of New York – Graduate Center, New York City, U.S.A.
Matilda Moore: Photographer of Civil War Era New Yorkers
“Mrs. Moore,” as she stamped her work, ran a thriving photographic parlor in New York City at 421 Canal Street – between Varick and Sullivan Streets – from 1857 to 1883. Reinserting Matilda Moore (born ca. 1832) into this era of photographic pioneers presents a distinct challenge. Often there are traces of long-forgotten artistic reputations, but the bodies of work have scattered. Moore, by contrast, left little written record and is known primarily through 100 or so surviving images, mostly cartes de visite (compared to 200,000 by leading male contemporary Abraham Bogardus). Over time she changed her logo from a cartouche to an eagle surrounded by a garland, all the while building the reputation of her studio. This branding of female identity forces us to grapple with the profile of a middle-class white women immersed in the world of urban commercial photography.
This brief paper adopts a dual perspective. We survey Moore’s known photographic output and the demographics of her clientele in the context of the demand for likenesses, fuelled by the Civil War. Simultaneously we document the economics of her studio operations and her role as mentor to two male assistants, who went on to have noteworthy careers. This outwardly conventional woman set up her establishment side-by-side with male competitors on one of the most heavily trafficked streets of one of the busiest cities in the world and succeeded as a businesswoman/ photographer.
Dr. Katherine Manthorne is a Professor Emerita of art history at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She committed to the study of the art of the Americas (1800-1940) in its hemispheric dimensions. Landscape imagery is a special passion, embodied in publications from Tropical Renaissance. North American Artists Exploring Latin America, 1839-1879 (1989) and Traveler Artists: Landscapes of Latin America from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection (2015) to California Mexicana: Missions to Murals, 1820 to 1930 (2017) and The Rockies and the Alps: Bierstadt, Calame and the Romance of the Mountains (2017). The Caribbean figures in Fern Hunting Among These Picturesque Mountains. Frederic Edwin Church in Jamaica (2010); Nueva York (2010); and Caribbean Crossroads (2012).
Working toward the internationalization of American art, she taught courses at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, Italy; and the Freie Universität, Berlin; and co-organized transnational conferences including Landscape Art of the Americas: Sites of Human Intervention Across the Nineteenth Century at the Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia (2021).
Women’s contributions to visual culture constitutes another theme in her work featured in two books: Women in the Dark: American Female Photographers 1850-1900 (2020) and Restless Enterprise: The Art and Life of Eliza Pratt Greatorex (2020).
Intermediality is another interest explored in Film and Modern American Art: The Dialogue Between Cinema and Painting (2019). She received fellowships from Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Fulbright and Smithsonian Institution. Currently projects include Sweet Fortunes: Sugar Plantations, Art Collecting and Enslaved Labor; and Fidelia Bridges: Between Fine Art & Popular Culture.
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