About this Item
Vintage albumen cabinet card. Measures 4.25" x 5.75" on slightly larger original printed cardstock mount. Left edge of card is slightly trimmed, tips of upper two corners very slightly trimmed at tips, presumably for insertion into a photograph album, very good or better, the image is bright, with nice contrast. The portrait depicts Foote from the chest up, facing the camera in three-quarter profile, dressed in a suit and tie. Foote, who was Caucasian, worked in various minstrel venues. Historian Edwin LeRoy Rice, in his book *Monarchs of Minstrelsy,* states: "William Foote, the well-known minstrel manager, began and ended his career in that branch of theatricals. In 1861 he was treasurer with M. C. Campbell's Minstrels; and in 1864 was agent for Haverly and Mallory; this being one of Haverly's earliest minstrel ventures… In conjunction with Mr. Haverly, on January 1, 1876, he re-organized the New Orleans Minstrels, and when Haverly amalgamated the famous Mastadons in 1878, Mr. Foote was manager, and continued in that capacity for several years." [Rice, p. 174 (c.f. Stout, *Burnt Cork and Tambourines: A Source Book for Negro Minstrelsy,* noting that under Foote's management, starting January, 1876, "Ben Brown, Hank Goodman, Frank West, N. B. Shimer, Joe Gorton, L. P. Benjamin, Otis H. Carter and others were in the company," Stout, p. 32)]. The photographer Charles [Carlo] Gentile was noted for his photographs of the Native American tribes of Arizona and the Western frontier [see Marino, *The Remarkable Carlo Gentile: Pioneer Italian Photographer of the American Frontier,* and Palmquist, *Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary*]. *OCLC* lists various photographic images by Gentile, including twenty-five examples of his work (most held by the Library of Congress). This portrait of Foote is not reproduced in any of the standard reference works of photographs by Gentile.
Seller Inventory # 519310
Contact seller
Report this item