Title	[Carte de visite of Edwin Forrest]
Date	Undated
Creator	Sarony
Artistic roles	Edwin Forrest (Actor)
Places	New York (N.Y.)
Item description	Carte de visite of Edwin Forrest (1806-1872). The card was produced by Sarony in New York.
Object narrative	Edwin Forrest (1806-1872) was the first internationally known and acclaimed American actor. Born to Scottish and German descendants, he made his stage debut in 1820. Touring at first as an actor in the West (Ohio and Kentucky), within six years he was performing in New York and building his reputation as the most powerful physical and vocal actor America had ever seen. He was popular for heroic and physical tragic roles such as Othello, King Lear, Virginius, and Metamora, and often brought audiences to their feet with his passionate, energetic, and frenetic portrayals. He reached his zenith in the late 1830s and 1840s as he toured to England and France, developing a professional rivalry with British actor William Macready, who played the same roles. Both men were known for jealousy and having virile tempers, however, and the feud became personal in the 1840s leading up to Forrest's second tour to England in 1845. Friends in the press and other supporters of both men criticized the other's performances in print, especially after Forrest publicly hissed Macready's performance of Hamlet in Edinburgh in February of that year, leading to public interest and charged opinions on both sides. Tensions eventually led to the Astor Place (New York) Riot on May 10, 1849, in which Americans rioted in the streets during a Macready performance and the militia tragically fired into the crowds. This carte de visite is of Forrest in his later career. He wears his characteristic wild hair and a sturdy overcoat over his suit. There is also a ribbon which descends from his neck across to a pocket which probably attached to his watch, another always-present Forrest accessory. Forrest abhorred all pretense and aristocratic snobbery and would insist on retaining his common American heritage and style until the end of his life, despite having become a rich and famous actor.
Type	Text
Original format	Portrait photo
Original publisher	[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]
Language	en
Contributing institution	Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries
Source collection	MSS255 Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection
Series/grouping	10.1.1: Photographs, Cards, Caricatures/Satire and Other Pictoral Materials -- Photographs -- People
Box	88
Finding aid link	http://library.uncg.edu/info/depts/scua/collections/manuscripts/ead/mss255.xml
Preferred citation	[Identification of item], Robert C. Hansen Performing Arts Collection, 1753-2006 (MSS255), Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.
Rights statement	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Additional rights information	NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES. This item has been determined to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. The user is responsible for determing actual copyright status for any reuse of the material.
Object ID	MSS255.088.008
Digital publisher	The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304
OCLC number	872280848

[Carte de visite of Edwin Forrest]

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