The London Boardman
Series TitleStreet Life in London, part 9, October 1877
Artist
John Thomson
(Scottish, 1837 - 1921)
Date1877
MediumWoodburytype
DimensionsImage: 4 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches (11.43 x 8.89 cm)
Sheet: 11 x 8 1/2 inches (27.94 x 21.59 cm)
Sheet: 11 x 8 1/2 inches (27.94 x 21.59 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2010.18.40.8.1
Signednone
InscribedOn sheet recto, bottom, in red type: "THE LONDON BOARDMEN."
Markingsnone
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionView of sign-board man, with cane and with pamphlet in outstretched hand, standing in street beside a lamp post; his sign promotes “Renovo.”Gallery LabelThis street portrait depicts a man wearing a sandwich board advertising Renovo, a product used to restore gloves. Published in John Thomson’s Street Life in London, the photograph is one of many in this series that highlights the plight of working-class and impoverished Londoners during the 1870s. Thomson’s work is an important early example of social documentary photography, following pre-photographic journalistic precedents that called attention to class inequities.
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