PBA Galleries

Browntone silver photograph. Signed in the negative by de Valera, and with Hartsook's imprint in the negative. 34x27 cm (13½x10½").

Three-quarter head and shoulders portrait of Irish nationalist Eamon de Valera, who was to become the longtime Prime Minister and eventually President of the Irish Republic. The present photograph was likely taken in 1919 or 1920, when de Valera came to the United States seeking recognition of an independent Ireland, and to raise money to finance the struggle against British rule. The photograph is very similar, undoubtedly from the same sitting, as the example in the Library of Congress. Surprisingly, we can find no other Hartsook photographs of de Valera in institutional libraries. Accompanied by the original frame, from which it has been removed for examination.