Amazing matte-finish 31 x 23.5 photo of the justices of the 1916 White Court dressed in their judicial robes, affixed to its original 35.5 x 28.5 mount, signed on the mount in black ink by William R. Day, Louis Brandeis, Joseph McKenna, Mahlon Pitney, Edward Douglass White, James Clark McReynolds, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., John Hessin Clarke, and Willis Van Devanter. Bears a copyright notation to the lower right of the image, “Clinedinst Studio, 1916.” Framed to an overall size of 42.5 x 35. A few professional repairs to mount (most noticeably to upper left corner and below Pitney’s signature), otherwise fine condition.
Elevated to chief justice in 1910 by President Taft, Edward Douglass White headed this distinguished group of justices from 1916 to 1922—with Brandeis and Clarke both in their first year as justices in 1916. The year of this photo, the court made two especially notable decisions; the first upholding the 16th amendment, declaring it constitutional for Congress to levy a federal income tax, and the second controversially overturning a law that would have limited child labor. The latter decision was 5-4, with Justice Holmes leading the opposition in an eloquent dissent, saying, ‘If there is any matter upon which civilized countries have agreed—it is the evil of premature and excessive child labor.’ These decisions—along with the White Court’s earlier ruling in the famous Standard Oil v. US case, which found Rockefeller’s company guilty of monopolizing the petroleum industry and broke it into several separate firms—would impact commerce for years to come. This crystal-clear portrait of these influential justices is far larger than most of the period—the expense of producing such images makes them quite rare—and many of the jurists pictured, Holmes and Brandeis in particular, are among the greatest in American history, making this a truly remarkable piece. Oversized. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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