Wikipedia says of Hastings:

The Hastings 1895 chess tournament was a round-robin tournament of chess conducted in Hastings, England from August 5 to September 2, 1895.

Hastings 1895 was arguably the strongest tournament in history at the time it occurred.  All of the strongest players of the generation competed.  This was one of the first times such a "super-tournament" was conducted.

Harry Nelson Pillsbury won the tournament against a strong competitive group.  Pillsbury, a young American unknown in Europe, was the surprise winner with 16½ out of 21 points – ahead of Mikhail Chigorin (16) and world champion Emanuel Lasker (15½).  Following the success of the event, the Hastings tournament would become an annual feature.

Here are photos and signatures of all the players, taken from The Hastings Chess Tournament 1895, edited by Horace F Cheshire, published in 1896 and now in the Public Domain.  The book contains all the games, with annotations by Pillsbury, Lasker, Tarrasch, Steinitz, Schiffers, Teichmann, Bardeleban, Blackburne, Gunsberg, Tinsley, Mason, and Albin.  You can download it for free on our eBooks page.  Meanwhile, enjoy these photos of the players, taken by G. Bradshaw, of Hastings, England, who also donated a special prize of an enlarged photograph to the first player to win seven games (won by Tchigorin).

Enjoy the photographs:

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