Three men with the Prairie Farmer and a sheaf of grain, Chicago, Illinois — Moore

Carte-de-visite portrait of three unidentified men, two seated and one standing behind them against a plain studio background. The standing man holds a rolled paper and wears a dark, contrastingly edged coat, a broad bow tie and a watch chain. The seated men display an open newspaper, while the man at right holds a tied sheaf of grain upright beside his shoulder.

The newspaper masthead reads “Prairie Farmer.” Together, the paper and grain give the portrait an agricultural emphasis, though neither establishes the men’s identities or occupations. The arrangement makes these objects prominent without obscuring the faces or the details of the men’s clothing.

The ornamental reverse backmark reads “MOORE, / Photographer / 146 Lake St., / CHICAGO.” A floral border surrounds the imprint, with two putti, a camera and a portrait above it. The printed street number “146” is struck through in purple ink, with “76” inserted immediately to its left. The sitting was made at Moore’s Lake Street studio in Chicago, Illinois; the ink correction records the studio’s changed street number.

The reverse also carries the pencil number “10813” at upper left. A faint pencil annotation below the imprint reads “1871 - moore LISTED / AT. THIS ADDRS - 1 YR only.” This records a claim about an address listing rather than a documented exposure date. The photograph remains undated, and the purpose of the separate pencil number is unresolved.