MAUD RAYMOND & GUS ROGERS VAUDEVILLE PHOTOGRAPH ARCHIVE EARLY CAREER PORTRAITS, “TOPSY” AT UNION SQUARE ACADEMY OF MUSIC, AND TOURING PHOTOS, 1895–c.1905

Item #1583

Six original photographs (two cabinet cards from the same negative, one oval studio print, and three mounted photos) documenting the early careers and marriage of Maud(e) Raymond (Mrs. Gus Rogers) and Gus Rogers of the Rogers Brothers vaudeville team.

Maud Raymond (born Rashel Lobenstein on New York’s Lower East Side) was a Jewish American actress and comedienne who rose from dime-museum and variety stages in the late 1880s to starring roles in vaudeville, burlesque, and Broadway. She married comedian Gus Rogers (Gustave Solomon)—half of the Rogers Brothers—in January 1895, and soon became a featured player in their touring musical farces and “Dutch” comedy routines.

In 1901 she appeared as Topsy—in blackface—in William A. Brady’s all-star Broadway revival of Uncle Tom’s Cabin at the Academy of Music, a role that helped link her name with racially caricatured “coon songs” and ragtime material of the period.

This small but cohesive group follows that arc closely:

1–2. Gus Rogers cabinet cards, Harrison, Central Music Hall Studio, Chicago, 1895

Two virtually identical cabinet photographs (standard cabinet format on printed “Harrison / Central Music Hall Studio / Chicago” mounts) showing a very young Gus Rogers, clean-shaven and carefully dressed in checked waistcoat and ascot.

One mount is neatly signed in ink “Gus Rogers” with a contemporary date “Sept 1/95” at lower margin.

The second, more worn example carries later promotional inscriptions in purple and black ink: at top “The Laugh Maker 5–”; at lower margin “A GLORIOUS NIGHT”, with additional notes apparently reading “Mc Anderson – Manager – Season 97/98”. Edge loss at lower center and handling wear, but all inscriptions legible.

Taken the same year that Maud and Gus married and began extensive touring with the Rogers Brothers, these are very early, possibly self-supplied publicity prints for the act, one of them clearly re-purposed for a particular theatrical season.


3. Maud Raymond as “Topsy,” Union Square Academy of Music, New York, ca. 1901

Small, dark, cabinet card showing a woman in loose, ragged dress and exaggerated, “wild” hair adorned with bows, standing in an alley or backstage passage. On the image in a large, fluid hand: “Topsy Maude [Maud] Raymond”; along the lower border: “Academy of Music 14th St Union Sq”. Verso repeats in a later hand: “Union Sq / Academy of Music / Maude Raymond.” Mount heavily abraded at edges but image still strong.

The inscriptions, combined with costume and venue, strongly support identification of the sitter as Maud Raymond in her role as Topsy in Uncle Tom’s Cabin at Brady’s 1901 revival at New York’s Academy of Music on 14th Street.

The image is particularly significant as an informal view of a white Jewish performer costumed for a blackface role, offering visual evidence of the racialized performance practices that underpinned much popular theatre at the turn of the century.

4. Maud Raymond & Gus Rogers on steps, London, 1905

Mounted gelatin silver snapshot of a woman and man standing rather stiffly on the steps of a large institutional building. The woman holds her hat and parasol, dressed in blouse and long skirt with fashionable upswept hair; the man (Gus) slouches in cap and open jacket, hands in pockets.

Verso in period ink: “Maude Raymond + Gus Rogers visiting Mamie [Marnie] Shafus in London 1905.”

A casual touring photograph, firmly locating the couple in London by mid-decade, when the Rogers Brothers’ success in musical farce had made international engagements possible.

5. Street-front group portrait, Maud Raymond Rogers & Gus Rogers, early 1900s

Mounted photo showing three figures bundled in winter coats and hats posed before what appears to be a theatre or commercial doorway; a poster or painted sign is partly visible behind them.

Verso inscription in a later hand along the top edge: “Maude Raymond Rogers / Gus Rogers”; third person unidentified.

While less precisely located than the London view, this is almost certainly another on-the-road photograph, placing Maud and Gus in the everyday streetscape of the touring theatrical world.

6. Oval studio portrait of Maud & Gus, Milwaukee, June 1895

Toned oval studio print trimmed to shape and once mounted (mount now gone, but a scrap with caption “Milwaukee June...” remains attached at the bottom of the image). The young couple are posed shoulder-to-shoulder, Maud in dark dress with striped collar and elaborate sleeves, Gus in three-piece suit and cravat.

Verso carries a large red crayon notation “June / 95–” and pencil “Milwaukee June 18 1895”, with a later ballpoint oval around the identification “Maude & Gus Rogers.”

Dated only months after their January 1895 marriage, this may be among the earliest surviving portraits of the couple as husband and wife, taken while they were on the road with the Rogers Brothers act.

Together these six photographs chart a crucial decade in the intertwined personal and professional lives of Maud Raymond and Gus Rogers, from newlywed publicity portraits through phtoographs of their touring life and into Maud’s controversial work in blackface as Topsy on the Broadway stage.

The group is rich for:

Vaudeville and musical-theatre history – visual documentation of the Rogers Brothers and their star soubrette at an early stage of their ascent.


Jewish performance history – both Maud and Gus were Jewish performers whose careers emerged from the immigrant entertainment circuits of New York’s Lower East Side.


Race, blackface, and popular culture – the “Topsy” photograph, in particular, provides a rare informal look at a non-Black actress preparing to embody a racist stereotype central to Uncle Tom’s Cabin’s long stage life.

Overall condition ranges from very good (clean cabinet card) to fair (abraded mounts, one chipped cabinet), with all inscriptions legible and the narrative through-line of the archive intact. An unusually intimate photographic record of a major but now largely forgotten vaudeville couple, ideal for collections concerned with performance, Jewish American history, gender on stage, or visual histories of race and entertainment.

These photos came directly from the couple's great granddaughter.

Price: $500.00

Status: On Hold