Tinted Mirror Photograph of Edna, Marlborough Photo Shop, New York City

Printed on the back of this real photo postcard: "Marlborough Photo Shop, 1355 Broadway, New York. Order ________. Negatives preserved for future orders. Cabinet photographs or life size portraits can be made from this plate."

Handwritten message on the back (no address, stamp, or postmark): "Dear Sister, I forgot to enclose this when I wrote so will send it now. It don't look much like me but the idea is quite good. Edna."

For information on the history and technique of this type of mirror photograph, or multigraph, see the report on Irwin Reichstein's presentation about The Multigraph, or read Reichstein's article, A Multigraph from Montreal (in PDF format), which appeared in Photographic Canadiana, vol. 33, no. 1 (May-June 2007), pp. 12-17.

You may also want to take a look at Heinz-Werner Lawo's impressive compilation of mirror photos on his Uneinsamkeiten / Unsolitudes: Fivefold-Portraits - Photo-Multigraphs - Multiple Photos blog.

See also the full version of this real photo postcard: