The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Somebody's Luggage (Miniature Wedding Album of Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren)

Somebody's Luggage (Miniature Wedding Album of Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren)

c. 1863
(American, 1823–1896)
America, 19th century
brass photographic locket with 12 miniature albumen prints
Overall: 2.7 x 2 x 1 cm (1 1/16 x 13/16 x 3/8 in.); Each: 2.3 x 2 cm (7/8 x 13/16 in.)
Gift of Herbert Ascherman, Jr. 2015.51
Location: not on view

Description

This deluxe commercial souvenir commemorates the marriage of “General” Tom Thumb (Charles Sherwood Stratton) and Lavinia Warren, performers at P. T. Barnum’s American Museum. Thumb was such a celebrity that the wedding pushed the Civil War off newspapers’ front pages for days. Cartes-de-visite of the wedding sold in the thousands; Brady even licensed the image to lithographers and other photographers. In one image, Lavinia holds a baby who was borrowed for the photo shoot to suggest her domestic skills. The locket is shaped like a miniature suitcase bearing the words “Somebody’s Luggage,” the title of an 1862 story by Charles Dickens.
  • Herbert Ascherman, Jr., acquired 2014
    Private collection, Cleveland, acquired 2011
    Private collection, location unknown
  • Cheating Death: Portrait Photography’s First Half Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 22, 2016-February 5, 2017).
  • {{cite web|title=Somebody's Luggage (Miniature Wedding Album of Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren)|url=false|author=Mathew Brady|year=c. 1863|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2015.51