Young Man in Athletic Outfit (c.1857): Art, History and Details

Young Man in Athletic Outfit (c.1857) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Oliver H. Willard (American, 1828–1875).

The work and its context

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

During this era, people played recreational sports in attire resembling street clothes; this man’s outfit suggests that he was an acrobat or circus performer. It was common in the 19th century to photograph workers with the tools of their trade or in apparel unique to their profession. Photography collectors later labeled that type of photograph as an “occupational.”

Object facts

• Title: Young Man in Athletic Outfit
• Date: c.1857
• Creator attribution: Oliver H. Willard (American, 1828–1875)
• Culture: America
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: salted paper print from wet collodion negative
• Dimensions: Image: 21.5 x 16.5 cm (8 7/16 x 6 1/2 in.); Paper: 22.4 x 17 cm (8 13/16 x 6 11/16 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)
• Collection: PH - American 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2003.304

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.