Michael Lehr Antiques
Live Auction

June 2026 Vernacular Photo History Auction

Wed, Jun 24, 2026 11:00AM EDT
  2026-06-24 11:00:00 2026-06-24 11:00:00 America/New_York Michael Lehr Michael Lehr : June 2026 Vernacular Photo History Auction https://auction.michaellehrantiques.com/auctions/michael-lehr-antiques/june-2026-vernacular-photo-history-auction-23574
Our June 2026 auction presents a focused and exceptional selection of historical photographs spanning the 1840s through the early twentieth century, with unusual depth in named subjects, rare formats, and documented provenance anchored by strong vernacular material that rewards close looking.
Michael Lehr Antiques info@michaellehrantiques.com
Lot 109

Stereoview, African American Man with Banjo

Estimate: $50 - $100
Starting Bid
$25

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$100 $10
$200 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $250
$5,000 $5,000
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
A Black man playing a banjo in an outdoor garden setting is depicted in this stereoview from the Popular Series, the publisher unmarked, titled in a printed caption along the lower border "Come where my love lies dreaming," dating to the 1870s or 1880s. The title references the well-known Stephen Foster song of 1855, and the image is a staged genre scene of the type widely produced and circulated during this period, presenting a romanticized and stereotyped subject drawn from the minstrel tradition that pervaded popular American visual culture of the era.

The subject sits outdoors wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and a boldly striped open-collared shirt, playing a five-string open-back banjo, his expression animated and directed toward the camera. A vine-covered cottage window and garden foliage fill the background, and the composition is tightly framed to bring the figure and instrument into close focus. The banjo's circular head, visible tuning pegs, and fretted neck are clearly rendered.

Genre stereoviews of this type, produced in large quantities by American publishers throughout the 1860s through 1880s, drew on minstrel imagery and Foster's sentimental parlor songs to create scenes for middle-class domestic consumption. They are collected today as primary documents of nineteenth-century racial representation in popular visual media, and their imagery requires contextualizing within the discriminatory conventions that shaped their production.

The reverse bears no photographer's imprint. The card is from the Popular Series as noted in the decorative gothic lettering along both vertical borders.

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