divingsuit

Pearling has been carried out in Indonesian waters from very early times, with local divers collecting the shell. Some of the Indonesian divers went a con-siderable distance in search of shell. As Europeans extended their presence in the north of Australia, they saw Indonesians collecting pearls in Australian waters. The Aru Islands have been, and still are, one of the principal pearl-shell grounds in Indonesia. Al-though quite off the track of all European trade, these islands had by the early 19th century become the eastern terminus for the annual fleet of Bugis prahus from Ma-kassar (The Buginese are traders and seaborne colonists from south Sulawesi; see map, Fig. 2.) They were a source not only of pearls and mother-of-pearl, hut of such exotics as birds of paradise, tortoiseshell, trepang or sea slug, and edible birds’ nests. The British naturalist Alfred Wallace did the 1000-mile journey to the remote islands in a Bugis prahu in the 1850s (Fig. 4) and considered it quite an achieve-ment. “Even by the Makassar people themselves the voyage to the Aru Islands is looked upon as a rather wild and romantic expedi-tion, full of novel sights and strange adventures. He who has made it is looked up to as an authority, and it remains with many the unachieved ambition of their lives. I myself had hoped rather than expected ever to reach this “Ultima Thule” of the East…” (Wallace 1869:309). Source: www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/sampans-belangs-and-junkos/

Diving *and* smoking? That's gotta be tricky.

Bad. Ass.

What style...

I can guess this is most likely from the Tarpon Springs area, as they were the sponge diving capital of the world. The sponge docks along the Anclote river are famous, and to this day still have divers in such suits.

Great photo :)

Sarah Bernhardt (French: [saʁa bɛʁnɑʁt];[note 1] born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including La Dame Aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas fils; Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, Fédora and La Tosca by Victorien Sardou, and L'Aiglon by Edmond Rostand. She also played male roles, including Shakespeare's Hamlet. Rostand called her "the queen of the pose and the princess of the gesture", while Hugo praised her "golden voice". She made several theatrical tours around the world, and was one of the first prominent actresses to make sound recordings and to act in motion pictures.

In 1880, at the start of her first tour to the United States, an article in the [New Haven] Morning Journal and Courier. October 30, 1880, page 1, right-hand column chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015483/1880-10-30/ed-... focused on her costumes for the roles she was to play and that "the great Felix, prince of Paris dressmakers, was subjected to the most trying variations of her taste. The making of the dresses is described in the Figaro as a perfect work of art, for Bernhardt required the most delicate variations of light and shade." But there is no mention of an "Ocean Empress" as role or name of a play.

Another photo of Bernhardt in the LoC collections is www.loc.gov/pictures/item/98503044/resource/ in which Bernhardt is in the diver suit. Both pictures appear to have been acquired through copyright deposit in the U.S. Perhaps they were promotional photographs for a project she was trying to get support for. Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues under the Seas" originated in serialized form in 1869-70, with an octavo illustrated edition published in 1871. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Seas The popularity of the novel and the illustrations showing similar suits for men on the sea floor might have inspired Bernhardt.

The Copyright Office has a browsing system for hand-written catalog cards from 1870-1897. I don't fully understand the catalog structure but I have been able to determine that the photographer Napoleon Sarony submitted at least 40 photographs in 1880 that appear in groups under cards with the heading Bernhardt, Sarah. They are also listed in groups under cards with the heading Sarony (N). But I have not found captions for individual photographs.

This photo was held in the LoC's BIOG file and has a 4 written on it. Also in the file, with a 5 in the same hand is www.loc.gov/pictures/item/98503044/resource/ a photo of Bernhardt in another studio portrait. In this one, she is wearing the diver suit and holding the helmet. She and some props are in front of a painted backdrop of sea and cloudy sky.