Frederic and Francis Almy (twins) by O. A. Taft

Otis A. Taft, 272 Main Streeet, Buffalo, NY.
"Multiple view portrait of an unidentified man", 4.25 x 6.5 inches, 1896. Courtesy of Schlesinger Library.

A second print of the same image on a different cabinet card from the Taft studio was sold at Ebay in December 2014. This cabinet photo has an inscription on the back saying that the sitters are the twins Frederic and Francis Almy. The photograph is dated: “December, 1897”.

The image is in fact a montage of two different photo-multigraphs of the two brothers into one print. There is an article on the photographer Otis A. Taft in: The Industries of Buffalo, Elstner Publishing Company, Buffalo 1887, p. 101:

O. A. TAFT, Artist Photographer – No. 272 Main St., near Swan.
   Mr.Taft is a rarely accomplished and successful photographer, who for twenty-eight years has devoted his native talent and energy to the uninterrupted study and pursuit of his profession in all of its higher branches, the result being the achievement of a reputation second to that of no artist legitimately engaged in photography west of New York City. Mr. Taft was born in Vermont, and has had practical experience in his vocation in three States, thus acquiring a knowledge of men and women and their tastes which enables him to give a degree of satisfaction in pose, style and general effect seldom attained by photographers as a class.
   Mr. Taft has resided and labored at his profession in Buffalo since 1881. In 1882 he first occupied his present location, where he has the third and fourth floors and employs a capable force of assistants, his parlors and operating rooms being models of neatness and convenience. He has a large and steadily increasing circle of desirable patrons in the city and surrounding country, and may be fairly classed as a successful business man as well as artist. His specialties embrace all the higher grades of portrait photography, bromide enlargements, crayon portraits, and the most perfect and beautiful work in all branches. A visit to his gallery and studio will well repay lovers of art and admirers of the beautiful, whether they desire to sit for their own counterfeit presentments or merely to profitably and pleasantly while away an hour or two of leisure time.
   The view of Main street from the windows is enlivening, and persons out shopping find this a delightful lounge, where they can rest as they examine the works of art. Teachers and others find it a pleasant way of passing an hour or two of their leisure time.

Bear Chief - Photo-Multigraph

"Bear Chief, Photo-multigraph (of five positions at one sitting)
by Mr. J. D. Bancker, No. 98 Sixth Avenue, New York"
Reproduction in: Forest and Stream, Vol. 46, No. 13, March 28, 1896, p. 251

Cissy Fitzgerald (1873-1941)

Photo-Multigraph by H.L. Bostwick
Halftone reproduction in Walter E. Woodbury, Photographic Amusements, New York 1896.

Justin Harwood mailed this information to me about his great-grandmother: "Cissy Fitzgerald appeared in a number of famous London and Broadway performances under the successful Vaudeville manager George Edwardes. A Gaiety Girl was first performed at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London in 1893. George Edwardes then brought the performance and cast to New York in 1894 and it was a huge success. Cissy was known as the girl with the wink (a very sexually suggestive thing to do in Victorian London). The Foundling was another Broadway hit and was performed at Daly's Theatre New York in 1895. Cissy was one of the first actresses to be captured on film by Edison in 1896. Cissy then went on to become a prolific actress in Hollywood: she appeared in 70 films, starting with The Accomplished Mrs Thompson in 1914 and ending with Patricia Gets Her Man in 1937."