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William J. Gies Ulmann, Doris  (American, 1882-1934)

Issued under her maiden name of Doris U. Jaeger, this is the first published monograph of fine, hand pulled photogravure plates by the important American photographer Doris Ulmann (1882-1934) published in 1919.

Educated at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, a socially liberal organization that championed individual worth regardless of ethnic background or economic condition, and Columbia University, Doris Ulmann intended to become a teacher of psychology. Her interest in photography was at first a hobby but after 1918 she devoted herself to the art professionally. She practiced Pictorialism and was a member of the Pictorial Photographers of America. Ulmann was trained as a pictorialist and graduated from the Clarence H. White School of Modern Photography where she was exposed to the art of photogravure through Clarence White and Paul Anderson. Ulmann was married for a time to Dr. Charles H. Jaeger, a fellow Pictorialist photographer and an orthopedic surgeon on the staff of Columbia University Medical School and a likely connection for her first publication, The faculty of the College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University in the City of New York: twenty-four portraits, elegantly designed and printed on handmade paper containing twenty four beautiful photogravure portraits. After comparing the books, it is hard to deny that Ulmann’s design was influenced by Coburn’s, A Door in the Wall. A beautiful book of forgotten yet important physicians. The work features 24 individual tissue-guarded portrait photographic plates of faculty members and a frontis showing the entrance to school. Designed by Fred W. Goudy with types set by Bertha M. Goudy.