Exceptional carte de visite portrait of a Chinese man photographed by R. A. Lewis who operated at 160 Chatham Street, New York City. The subject stands confidently in full-length studio pose, dressed in a light-toned suit and holding a stovepipe hat in one hand. A small badge or pin is faintly visible on his lapel, and the backdrop includes a railing and period furniture, placing this firmly in the post-Civil War 1860s–1870s era.

R. A. Lewis was one of the few prominent New York photographers to regularly photograph people of Asian descent during this time. Images like this—formally posed, sensitively rendered, and commercially produced for the CDV trade—are exceedingly uncommon and increasingly sought after for their documentation of Chinese-American presence in 19th-century America.