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Appreciating A Pretty Shoulder: The Risquie Images Of Charles Ellis Johnson, Daniel Davis

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Housed in the collections of the Special Collections and Archives at Utah State University is an intriguing set of risqué photographs dating roughly from 1890 to 1910. Some of the images are stereo-views or cabinet card portraits of burlesque actresses either in tights or displaying bare necks, shoulders, and upper bosoms. Other photographs in the collection are even more suggestive with women undressing, lounging about with dresses that reveal their thighs, wearing body suits, and removing one-another’s clothing. By today’s standards they are more comical than pornographic. Considering the conventions of the time, however, especially in conservative, turn-ofthe-century Utah they …