The Hold-Up (1880s): Art, History and Details

The Hold-Up (1880s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Since the beginning of photography, objects and people have been purposefully arranged, or staged, for the camera. Popular in the late 1860s and 1870s, tintypes offered low prices and shortened exposure times. Perhaps because tintypists commonly worked at fairs and carnivals, frivolous images, such as this staged hold-up, became common. In these fictional scenes, all the participants were in on the joke. Some such scenes may be novelties, others may be gag portraits commissioned by groups of friends.

Object facts

• Title: The Hold-Up
• Date: 1880s
• Culture: American, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: tintype, whole plate
• Dimensions: Overall: 21.6 x 16.5 cm (8 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)
• Collection: PH - American 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2003.299

Collection credit

Gift of Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.