CABINET CARD- ACTRESS MARY ANDERSON AS GALATEA - SARONY PHOTO
Cabinet card photograph, 6 ½ x 4 ¼. Portrait of noted 19th c actress Mary Anderson As Galatea in W. S. Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea
Sarony , New York photographer’s imprint.  Napoleon Sarony (1821 – 1896) was an American lithographer and photographer. He was a highly popular portrait photographer, best known for his portraits of the stars of late-19th-century American theater.
Mary Anderson (1859 –1940) was an American theatre actress. Shortly after Mary was born, her parents moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where her father enlisted in the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War. He was killed in action at Mobile when she was three. In 1875, she made her first stage appearance at a benefit performance at Macauley's Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky in the role of Shakespeare's Juliet. Further engagements at St Louis, New Orleans and John McCullough's theatre in San Francisco led to a contract with John T. Ford. Starting as Lady Macbeth in his Washington theatre in 1877, she began an extensive US tour, culminating with a six-week engagement in The Lady of Lyons at the 5th Avenue Theatre, New York.  From this point she enjoyed a twelve-year career of unbroken success, with regular New York performances and US tours. In 1879 she went on a voyage to Europe, In 1883, after starring in an American production of W. S. Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea, she went on the London stage at the Lyceum Theatre, remaining in England for six years to perform to much acclaim including at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon.  In 1889, however, she collapsed on stage due to severe nervous exhaustion during a performance at Albaugh's Theatre in Washington. Disbanding her company, she announced her retirement at the age of 30. Some commentators, particularly in the British press, ascribed this turn of events to hostile press reviews on her return to the U.S.
 Image exhibits good tonality and contrast. Ccet042