Portrait of Sculptor Edmonia Lewis, circa 1870

Edmonia Lewis, a renowned sculptor of African-American and Native American heritage who worked primarily in Rome, posed for this carte-de-visite when she traveled to Chicago in 1870. Cartes-de-visite, small photographic prints on cardboard stock, remained popular from the Civil War in the 1860s through the 1880s. Americans commonly collected and exchanged them to commemorate family members or celebrities.