The Ransom Center’s photography collection contains more than 100 photographs attributed to distinguished nineteenth-century photographer O. G. Rejlander. One print is a portrait of Olivia Bennet, The Countess of Tankerville. Researcher Lori Pauli visited the Ransom Center to study the portrait, and she reflected on the possible intersection of the lives of photographer and subject in a story which originally appeared in the Fall 2014 Random Edition newsletter.
The Harry Ransom Center’s renowned photography collection includes the only known print of a portrait of Olivia Bennet, The Countess of Tankerville, by distinguished nineteenth-century photographer Oscar Gustave Rejlander. This portrait is among more than 100 photographs attributed to Rejlander (British, b. Sweden, 1813?–1875) in the Ransom Center’s photography collection. Most are spread among four albums: one that formerly belonged to the British painter William Lake Price (1810–1896); another previously owned by British artist Cecil Gordon Lawson (1851–1882); a third known as the “Riglander” album; and the last an album compiled by writer Charles L. Dodgson (1832–1898), more famously known as Lewis Carroll. There are also ten loose prints attributed to Rejlander in the collection.
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