This very early American art photographic exhibition catalogue was issued by the Camera Club of the Capital Bicycle Club of Washington, D.C. in 1896. There are 345 exhibits in two photographic classes (A & B)  listed in the 23 page volume, which is string-bound and printed on laid paper. Fifty photographers are represented in Class A and 51 are included in Class B. There are two additional photographers represented in a separate Technical Class.

The title page states:

CATALOGUE of the Washington Salon and Art Photographic Exhibition of 1896, Held at the Assembly Hall of the Cosmos Club, May 26th to 29th, 1896, Under the Direction of the Exhibition Committee of the Camera Club of the C.Bi.C.

The following page lists the Exhibition Committee:

Chas. Richards Dodge (chairman), Eugene Lee Ferguson, (secretary treasurer) and Chas. H. Schaaff

Art Jury:  Edmund Clarence Messer, Richard N. Brooke, Max Weyl.

Technical Jury:  F.C. Beach, C.M. Gilbert, Edmund Clarence Messer.

A forward to the catalogue then follows:

The Exhibition

THE Committee in charge of the Exhibition feels that its efforts towards the establishment of a Photographic Salon has met with a gratifying measure of success. The task of acceptance and classification was a difficult one, and in this able assistance was rendered by the art jury. The standard fixed was high, and that Class A comprises the majority of the frames hung, while but eighty exhibits were rejected, evidences the superior pictorial quality of the work submitted.

409 Fifteenth Street,
Washington City,
May 25, 1896.

The catalogue further includes one page of advertising for three concerns: Walpole Chemical Co., Old Stag Whiskey, and the printer of the catalogue- W.F. Roberts, located at 1421 G Street in Washington, D.C.

Select photographs from the exhibition can be found at the Smithsonian Institution online and the entire catalogue at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Libraries website.

staining and circular sticker residue at top right corner of cover-staining to cover verso (not shown)