Edwards Foreign Repository

This 1843 printmaker got their start in dance—not as a ballerina, but by capturing dancers like Carlotta Grisi mid-leap, her signature inked right on the page. They sold these prints in Paris print shops, where people snapped them up like concert posters today. Their real trick? Turning fleeting stage moments into lasting paper souvenirs, complete with Grisi’s actual signature, as if you’d just caught a dancer mid-curtsy. Look up *Mademoiselle Carlotta Grisi, in Coralli and Gautier's Grand Ballet of The Peri*—it’s the closest thing to a backstage pass from the 1840s.