03/17/2025
This cabinet card was taken by C.M. Bell of Washington DC.
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Charles Milton Bell (1848-1893) was one of Washington’s leading portrait photographers during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The studio became known for its large collection of portraits of Washington notables, including politicians, leading businessmen and educators, embassy officials and distinguished visitors from other countries, church leaders, athletes and entertainers, and members of Washington’s Black middle class.
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Bell expanded his studio until it occupied four street numbers between 459 and 465 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. The Pennsylvania Avenue studio was very elegant, and the operating room was equipped with two skylights of clear French plate glass. After 1876, it also boasted a camera that had been specially made by E. and H. T. Anthony for exhibition at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, a camera that some claimed was the finest in the country.
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