Bidspirit auction | (AMERICAN-JUDAICA). (Photograph). Adah Isaacs Menken.

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA). (Photograph). Adah Isaacs Menken. Stereoscope card. Pencil inscription identifying the sitter and noting: “John C. Heenan [American bare-knuckle prize fighter] former wife.” Adah Isaacs Menken (1835-68) was the highest earning American actress of her time. She was best known for her performance in the melodrama Mazeppa, with a climax that apparently featured her nude on stage while riding a horse. “Adah Isaacs Menken, the first American Jewish ‘superstar, ’ helped pioneer the art of cultivating an outsized, even outrageous, personality as a path to fame and fortune.” (JVL).