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The Toxic Book of Faces

Sidedoor Season 9
07.05.2023
Illustration of an open book with a variety of black silhouettes.

Before the invention of photography, only the rich could afford to have portraits of themselves. But in the early 1800s, a device called the physiognotrace democratized portraiture, making it possible for everyday people to have their images captured in silhouettes. A man named William Bache traveled the United States creating hundreds of silhouette portraits with the aid of the physiognotrace. He left behind a ledger book that gives us a rare glimpse of early America—a ledger book laced with poison.

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