Full Moon Tonight!

"Oh, mister moon, moon, bright and silvery moon . . . "

The moon has long fascinated songwriters, poets, and artists, including America's early photographers. In case of cloudy skies tonight, you may take inspiration from William Rau's stereograph card from the Museum's photography collection and S. D. Humphrey's experiments with lunar light photography as described in the "Daguerreian Journal" of November 1850.

In 1877 William H. Rau, the son of Philadelphia photographer George Rau, purchased the stereograph company of his father-in-law, William Bell, a photographer with the U.S. Geological Survey. Rau continued to publish stereographs as well as lantern slides under his name, though some of the photographs were probably taken by assistants until the company was acquired by Underwood & Underwood in 1901. In 1898 the company's most popular subject was the Spanish-American War, including scenes such as this one of a gunner aboard the U.S.S. Iowa. Part of Rear Admiral William T. Sampson's fleet, the Iowa won fame in the battle of Santiago de Cuba. The popularity of the stereocards led to the publication of an illustrated supplement to Rau's annual catalogue.

Source: Merry A. Foresta. American Photographs: The First Century (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996).

Pictured: William H. Rau (1855–1920), Full Moon,n.d., stereograph card, sheet and image (each): 3 1/4 x 6 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment.