Alice Montgomery (1850-1917)

About the Artwork

Children have always been particularly cherished subjects for photography. Portraits were made to preserve the memory of their stages of growth and, in an age when long-distance travel was rare, to share with faraway relatives. And, for a sadder reason: in 1840 an estimated one-third of children died before age five. Photography offered grieving parents the opportunity to immortalize their children’s features. This tragic genre of photographs, later called “post-mortems,” often depicts the children in fine clothing, laying down with eyes shut, as if merely napping.

Inscriptions

Written in black ink on enclosed paper: "Alice Montgomery / 1850-1917"

Exhibition history

Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997). Cheating Death: Portrait Photography’s First Half Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 22, 2016-February 5, 2017).

Quick Overview

Artist: Enoch Long (American, 1823–1898)
Date: 1850
Medium: daguerreotype, applied color
Dimensions: Image: 4.2 x 5.5 cm (1 5/8 x 2 3/16 in.); Case: 8.1 x 9.4 x 1.5 cm (3 3/16 x 3 11/16 x 9/16 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.)
Type: Photograph
Classification: Photograph
Department: Photography
Credit line: L. E. Holden Fund
Accession no.: 1996.22

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.