George R. Edeson, identified by name and profession in decorative lettering across the face of this CDV, is portrayed in a composite promotional card produced by Egbert Guy Fowx's New Porcelain Card Photograph process, published at No. 1 N. Gay Street, Photograph Gallery over Robinson & Trail's Carpet Store, Baltimore, Maryland, patented October 19, 1869. The horizontal format and illustrated surround distinguish this as a specialty theatrical promotional card rather than a conventional portrait CDV.

A central oval photographic portrait of Edeson in civilian dress is set within an elaborate engraved decorative border incorporating four vignette illustrations of stage characters in costume: a sailor at upper left, a dandified figure in plaid trousers and top hat at upper right, a clown or pantomime character with a barrel at lower left, and a harlequin figure in a striped costume at lower right. A scrolled banner above reads "George R. Edeson" and a second banner below reads "Comedian & Pantomimist." The portrait shows a clean-shaven man with side-parted hair in a dark suit.

George R. Edeson was a working actor, theater manager, and producer whose career spanned the mid-to-late nineteenth century American stage, and who is documented as the father of Robert Edeson, the prominent Broadway and silent film actor who appeared in Cecil B. DeMille productions including The Ten Commandments and The King of Kings. The Fowx porcelain card process, patented in 1869, allowed photographic portraits to be combined with printed decorative surrounds, making it particularly suited to theatrical promotion.

The reverse bears the full imprint of Egbert Guy Fowx's New Porcelain Card Photograph, published at No. 1 N. Gay Street, Baltimore, Maryland, with the patent date of October 19, 1869, and penciled catalog notations at lower left and right.