This lithograph shows Charles S.Stratton also known as General Tom Thumb. A caption below the image describes him as 'The American Man in Miniature' and claims that he is smaller than any infant that ever walked alone, is 25 inches in height and weighs only 15 pounds. The date of his birth (11 Jan 1832) on this print is incorrect, but Stratton's manager, P.T. Barnum, always claimed that Tom Thumb was older than he was, so that his stature seemed all the more remarkable. The date of his birth is generally agreed to be 4 January 1838.

Trained by the American showman P.T. Barnum to sing and dance and do impersonations, Stratton was successfully marketed throughout America and Europe and appeared three times before Queen Victoria in 1844. He is shown standing on a desk with objects for scale, his hand resting on a copy of Boyle's Court Guide, a street directory by Patrick Boyle first published in 1792 as The fashionable court guide, or the town visit directory and issued annually with variant titles, imprints and sizes until 1925. Eliza Boyle succeeded to the editorship following the death of Patrick Boyle in 1808. The directory contained 'an alphabetical arrangement of the names and places of abode, in town and country, of all the ladies and gentlemen of fashion' and was perhaps a reference to the fashionable society Barnum enginered for Stratton to call on him in the house he rented in Grafton Street while he was in London.

A miniature calling card with the typed name 'Gen. Tom Thumb' is affixed to the front of the print.