Seated before a small table, a man inspects what appears to be a magic-lantern style glass slide. In his left hand he holds a series of slides, with other stacked on the table before him. The mounted photograph originally came with a simple wood frame but lacked glazing.

The surface of this gelatin silver print has a linen-like surface, and may be an example of Eastman Kodak’s “Zelta” matt-albumen paper introduced in 1912. The paper was actively branded by Philadelphia commercial photographer Elias Goldensky in conjunction with Kodak’s marketing efforts. A description of Zelta paper from 1912 in Studio Light magazine can be found here, with examples of his work from this archive found here.