This is a fairly early example of an important category of photograph - a carte-de-visite. Four years after this photograph was taken the composer - still without the imposing beard he grew in middle age - completed his First Symphony.

Adèle, Johannes Brahms
Carte-de-viste photograph, 1872
10.5 x 6.5 cm.

This snapshot shows the RCM alumnus Samuel Coleridge-Taylor at his home in South Norwood in about 1900. The music on the stand is clearly one of his own works, and the score on the piano is that of his most famous work, Hiawatha's Wedding Feast.

Anonymous photographer, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
South Norwood, c. 1900
24 x 20 cm.

A striking and characteristic Stravinskian pose from the outset of his career.

[Anonymous], Igor Stravinsky
Sepia postcard photograph (Moscow, 1911)
13.5 x 8.5 cm.