Maud Branscombe

A cabinet card portrait of the British actress Maud Brancombe (fl. 1870s – 1890s), seen here dressed as a nun.

In 1885 Miss Branscombe was interviewed by a Birmingham newspaper. 'Miss Brancombe is quite communicative on the subject of photography, and she has a revelation to make which is certainly startling after the many stories that have been told of the enormous profit she has reaped by patronising the photographic studio. Though her portraits have been on sale in nearly every capital in the world, though no photographer’s window in this country or America has been complete without them, we have it on the young lady’s own authority that she has never received a penny in return. There is more than a suspicion of sadness in her voice as she tells us this – highly suggestive of a consciousness that a golden opportunity has been thrown away. Or, to put it in her own worlds, “my face has not been a fortune to me, though it has been to other people.”' The article, which continues at some length, is a rare example of a nineteenth-century celebrity discussing her relationship with photography.

Photographer unidentified, probably Mora or Sarony of New York.