A group of 7 photographs by the New York heiress.
New York: 18 Beekman Place, nd, ca.1923.
Price: $2,600.00
About the item
Gelatin silver prints, with photographer's inked stamps and manuscript captions on verso. Each about 9 x 7 inches. Some very minor wear at edges, but fine.
Item #315330
A group of compelling, artistically composed photographs by New York heiress Joan Whitney Payson (1903-1975), member of the influential Whitney family, co-founder and first owner of the New York Mets, and prominent patron of the arts. She was the daughter of Payne Whitney and Helen Julia Hay, and the sister of John Hay Whitney. Payson's activity as a photographer seems otherwise unknown; the address in the ink stamp on the back of the photos, 18 Beekman Place, became the office for the magazine Younger Set, which we find described as "the venture of a number of young New York society women." The photographs include a young African-American girl, captioned "Harlem NYC"; a boy banging a drum captioned "Nantucket Auction"; a cigarette smoking woman and two girls on a stoop captioned "City Gypsies, Orchard Street, NYC" (illustrated); a water tower in Hoboken, NJ; nature scenes in Massachusetts; and Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut.
