Carte-de-Visite Portrait of Tennessee “Tennie” Claflin

N.p., 1870. Albumen print, 3 ½ x 2 ¼ inches on larger mount. Excellent.. An uncommon contemporary portrait of Tennie Claflin. This photograph was taken during the brief period that Claflin operated her brokerage firm with her sister, Victoria Woodhull—the two are the first women to open a Wall Street brokerage firm. The sisters opened the firm in the winter of 1870 with the support of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was drawn in by Claflin’s claims of magnetic healing and Woodhull’s of clairvoyance.[1] The short-lived firm shocked the press and public, but won the support of New-York Tribune editor Whitelaw Reid—and of the women whose financial needs the firm served. Using their profits, the sisters not only bought a lavish apartment but launched their own newspaper, Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly, which promoted their views on free love, Communism, and women’s rights.

A fine example with minimal wear.

[1] Edward J. Renehan, Jr., Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Basic Books: 2009).