Postcard of mulitgraph photograph of Percy Grainger ‘In the Round’, 1933

Postcard of mulitgraph photograph of Percy Grainger ‘In the Round’, 1933

This is a postcard featuring a 'multigraph' photograph of Percy Grainger. The Grainger Museum has many copies of this postcard, which was used by Percy Grainger as a promotional tool. It projects an explicitly modern image of the multifaceted musician. Outwardly confident, Grainger was internally conflicted about his relationship with his public. He wrote in 1947: ‘Unluckily, I do not have the gift of PERSUASION … I have never learnt the art of showmanship, or the technic of PLEASING. Curiously enough, I do have the gift of FAME: audiences want to go to hear or see me …’ The multigraph was reputedly invented by James B. Shaw in Atlantic City, New Jersey during the early 1890s. To capture a multifaceted portrait, three, five, or seven different images of the same person were captured in a single exposure by placing the subject in front of two mirrors placed at an angle. (Reference by Gary D. Saretzky, Nineteenth Century New Jersey Photographers Revision of illustrated article in New Jersey History, Fall/Winter 2004.)

Grainger Museum, University of Melbourne

Grainger Museum

1933

Grainger Museum

Grainger Museum Collection, 99.0600.1