Civil War Photo Album
200 Famous Historical Figures

Cartes de visite, miniature portraits used as calling cards, were extremely popular during the American Civil War. These photographic calling cards, approximately 2½ x 4 inches in size, had been invented in France in the early 1850s, and their popularity quickly spread throughout Europe and eventually to the United States, where the corollary development of the photograph album spurred a collecting craze in the 1860s that became known as Cartomania. In addition to assembling albums of family photographs, the public sought to collect images of celebrities and views of favorite places and sites. John Hay (1838-1905), a personal secretary to President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) who later had a successful diplomatic and political career of his own, is thought to have assembled the cards in this album. Many of the two hundred individuals represented in Hay's album, including numerous army and navy officers, politicians, and cultural figures, were undoubtedly visitors to the Lincoln White House. Others, such as Confederate president Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) and generals Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) and James Longstreet (1821-1904), were unlikely to have called at the Executive Mansion.

Most of the portraits in Hay's album are signed, greatly increasing their value. It was common practice during the war to acquire such portraits through gift or purchase, mail them to the individuals represented, and hope for their return--signed. Thus on the back of many of the cartes are notes requesting that the sitter affix his signature at the bottom of the carte, high enough to be seen when in an album. It was also customary for many photographers, including both Mathew B. Brady (1823-1896) and Alexander Gardner (1821-1882) whose work is well documented in this album, to keep stocks of autographed cartes for sale to souvenir album collectors. Hay was acquainted with both Brady and Gardner and went to the latter's studio with Lincoln for the president's sitting and separately to have his own photograph taken. He could quite possibly have purchased cartes from Gardner and others to supplement those he acquired directly from the sitters.

Hay thoughtfully arranged his collection of cartes in a decorative, leather-bound album patented by Altemus & Company of Philadelphia on 21 July 1863. Like many such albums, this one has gold-stamped decoration on the cover and spine, engraved circular ivory bosses at each corner of the cover, and two brass foredge clasps. The text block consists of a title page, a blank index page, twenty-five album pages, and a back flyleaf. Each album page holds eight cartes--four on the front and four on the back--inserted in recessed pockets. Since the cartes were placed back-to-back in the album, sometimes the ink instructions to one sitter bled from the back of one carte onto the verso of another. The text block edges are gilt, as are the edges of the openings for each photograph. The openings have been numbered 1 through 200, possibly by the same hand who wrote on the first page "Do not touch the pictures with the fingers." Of particular interest to book conservators is the album's "hinged-back" spine, ingeniously engineered to permit flexible movement of the heavy, stiff-paged text block. The pages of the album are attached to the spine by leather hinges that are slotted and have metal pins inserted. Each pin alternately picks up hinges for the page in front of it and in back of it, forming a continuous attachment of leaves. As the pages are turned, they rotate on the pin.

This digital reproduction of the album allows viewers the opportunity to page through the cartes as if they were perusing the volume in Hay's home. These "album page views" enable readers to consider Hay's selection and arrangement of the photographs. For example, Hay began the album with Lincoln followed by his vice presidents and members of his Cabinet. Elsewhere in the album there are groupings of politicians and military officers, with images of cultural and literary figures toward the end of the book. By selecting the "View these cartes" option from any of the album pages, readers may see the images as they would appear outside the album. Both the front and verso of each carte is fully displayed, revealing studio logos, addresses, and other imprint information on the approximately twenty photographers and/or photographic firms represented in the album. One especially elaborate imprint is for Alexander Gardner's studios, which features an image of the United States Capitol and its grounds, complete with strolling figures on the esplanade.

Here is a list of all the people in this album.

Agassiz, Louis, 1807-1873 Ames, Oakes, 1804-1873 Anderson, Robert, 1805-1871 Arnold, Isaac Newton, 1815-1884 Astor, John Jacob, 1822-1890 Augur, Christopher Columbus, 1821-1898 Averell, William Woods, 1832-1900 Banks, Nathaniel Prentiss, 1818-1894 Barlow, Francis C. (Francis Channing), 1834-1896 Barnes, Joseph K., 1817-1883 Barry, William F. (William Farquhar), 1818-1879 Bates, Edward, 1793-1869 Beauregard, G. T. (Gustave Toutant), 1818-1893 Beecher, Henry Ward, 1813-1887 Bidwell, John, 1819-1900 Bingham, John Armor, 1815-1900 Blaine, James Gillespie, 1830-1893 Blair, Frank P. (Frank Preston), 1821-1875 Blair, Montgomery, 1813-1883 Blow, Henry T. (Henry Taylor), 1817-1875 Booth, Edwin, 1833-1893 Botts, John Minor, 1802-1869 Boutwell, George S. (George Sewall), 1818-1905 Brooks, James, 1810-1873 Broomall, John M. (John Martin), 1816-1894 Brown, B. Gratz (Benjamin Gratz), 1826-1885 Browning, Orville Hickman, 1806-1881 Buckalew, Charles Rollin, 1821-1899 Buell, Don Carlos, 1818-1898 Bull, Ole, 1810-1880 Burnside, Ambrose Everett, 1824-1881 Butler, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1818-1893 Butterfield, Daniel, 1831-1901 Cameron, Simon, 1799-1889 Carroll, Samuel Sprigg, 1832-1893 Casey, Silas, 1807-1882 Chandler, Zachariah, 1813-1879 Chase, Salmon P. (Salmon Portland), 1808-1873 Clark, Daniel, 1809-1891 Clarke, Freeman, 1809-1887 Clay, Brutus Junius, 1808-1878 Cochrane, John, 1813-1898 Colfax, Schuyler, 1823-1885 Collamer, Jacob, 1791-1865 Conkling, Roscoe, 1829-1888 Conness, John, 1821-1909 Couch, Darius Nash, 1822-1897 Cox, Samuel Sullivan, 1824-1889 Crawford, Samuel Wylie, 1829-1892 Creswell, John A. J. (John Angel James), 1828-1891 Curtin, Andrew Gregg, 1815-1894 Custer, George Armstrong, 1839-1876 Dahlgren, John Adolphus Bernard, 1809-1870 Davis, Garrett, 1801-1872 Davis, Henry Winter, 1817-1865 Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889 Dawes, Henry L. (Henry Laurens), 1816-1903 Deming, Henry Champion, 1815-1872 Dennison, William, 1815-1882 Dix, John A. (John Adams), 1798-1879 Doolittle, James R. (James Rood), 1815-1897 Eliot, Thomas D. (Thomas Dawes), 1808-1870 Farnsworth, J. F. (John Franklin), 1820-1897 Farragut, David Glasgow, 1801-1870 Fenton, Reuben E. (Reuben Eaton), 1819-1885 Fessenden, William Pitt, 1806-1869 Foot, Solomon, 1802-1866 Forney, John W. (John Wien), 1817-1881 Foster, Lafayette S. (Lafayette Sabine), 1806-1880 Franklin, W. B. (William Buel), 1823-1903 Fremont, John Charles, 1830-1890 Fry, James B. (James Barnet), 1827-1894 Garfield, James A. (James Abram), 1831-1881 Geary, John White, 1819-1873 Gibbon, John, 1827-1896 Gillmore, Quincy Adams, 1825-1888 Gooch, Daniel W. (Daniel Wheelwright), 1820-1891 Gordon, John Brown, 1832-1904 Granger, Gordon, 1822-1876 Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885 Griffin, Charles, 1825-1867 Grimes, James W. (James Wilson), 1816-1872 Grinnell, Josiah Bushnell, 1821-1891 Griswold, John A. (John Augustus), 1818-1872 Hale, John P. (John Parker), 1806-1873 Halleck, H. W. (Henry Wager), 1815-1872 Hamlin, Hannibal, 1809-1891 Hancock, Winfield Scott, 1824-1886 Harlan, James, 1820-1899 Heintzelman, Samuel Peter, 1805-1880 Henderson, John B. (John Brooks), 1826-1913 Hendricks, Thomas A. (Thomas Andrews), 1819-1885 Henry, Joseph, 1797-1878 Hitchcock, Ethan Allen, 1798-1870 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1841-1935 Holt, Joseph, 1807-1894 Hooker, Joseph, 1814-1879 Hooper, Samuel, 1808-1875 Howard, O. O. (Oliver Otis), 1830-1909

Howard, William Alanson, 1813-1880 Howe, Timothy O. (Timothy Otis), 1816-1883 Humphreys, A. A. (Andrew Atkinson), 1810-1883 Hunter, David, 1802-1886 Ingalls, Rufus, 1818-1893 Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875 Johnson, Reverdy, 1796-1876 Johnston, Joseph E. (Joseph Eggleston), 1807-1891 Julian, George Washington, 1817-1899 Kasson, John A. (John Adam), 1822-1910 Kautz, August V. (Augustus Valentine), 1826-1896 Kelley, William D. (William Darrah), 1814-1890 Keyes, Erasmus D. (Erasmus Darwin), 1810-1895 Kilpatrick, Judson, 1836-1881 Lane, Henry Smith, 1811-1881 Lane, James Henry, 1814-1866 LeBlond, Francis Celeste, 1821-1902 Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870 Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882 Longstreet, James, 1821-1904 Maynard, Horace, 1814-1882 McClellan, Ellen Marcy, 1838-1907 McClellan, George Brinton, 1826-1885 McCulloch, Hugh, 1808-1895 McDougall, J. A. (James Alexander), 1817-1867 Meade, George Gordon, 1815-1872 Meigs, Montgomery C. (Montgomery Cunningham), 1816-1892 Merritt, Wesley, 1834-1910 Miles, Nelson Appleton, 1839-1925 Moorhead, J. K. (James Kennedy), 1806-1884 Morgan, Edwin D. (Edwin Denison), 1811-1883 Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898 Morrill, Lot M. (Lot Myrick), 1812-1883 Morton, Oliver P. (Oliver Perry), 1823-1877 Murdoch, James Edward, 1811-1893 Myers, Leonard, 1827-1905 Nye, James W. (James Warren), 1814-1876 Odell, Moses Fowler, 1818-1866 Oglesby, Richard J. (Richard James), 1824-1899 Ord, Edward Otho Cresap, 1818-1883 Parke, John Grubb, 1827-1900 Patterson, James W. (James Willis), 1823-1893 Pendleton, George H. (George Hunt), 1825-1889 Pleasonton, Alfred, 1824-1897 Pomeroy, Samuel Clarke, 1816-1891 Pomeroy, Theodore Medad, 1824-1905 Pope, John, 1822-1892 Porter, David D. (David Dixon), 1813-1891 Porter, Fitz-John, 1822-1901 Pruyn, John VanSchaick Lansing, 1811-1877 Ramsey, Alexander, 1815-1903 Randall, Alexander Williams, 1819-1872 Rosecrans, William S. (William Starke), 1819-1898 Rousseau, Lovell Harrison, 1818-1869 Saulsbury, Willard, 1820-1892 Schenck, Robert Cumming, 1809-1890 Schofield, John McAllister, 1831-1906 Schurz, Carl, 1829-1906 Scofield, Glenni W. (Glenni William), 1817-1891 Scott, Winfield, 1786-1866 Seward, William Henry, 1801-1872 Shellabarger, Samuel, 1817-1896 Sheridan, Philip Henry, 1831-1888 Sherman, John, 1823-1900 Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891 Sickles, Daniel Edgar, 1825-1924 Sigel, Franz, 1824-1902 Slocum, Henry Warner, 1826-1894 Smith, Green Clay, 1826-1895 Smith, Joseph, 1790-1877 Spalding, Rufus P. (Rufus Paine), 1798-1886 Speed, James, 1812-1887 Spinner, Francis Elias, 1802-1890 Sprague, William, 1831-1915 Stanton, Edwin McMasters, 1814-1869 Stebbins, Henry G. (Henry George), 1811-1881 Stephens, Alexander Hamilton, 1812-1883 Stevens, Thaddeus, 1792-1868 Stoneman, George, 1822-1894 Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874 Terry, Alfred Howe, 1827-1890 Thomas, George Henry, 1816-1870 Trumbull, Lyman, 1813-1896 Usher, John Palmer, 1816-1889 Van Valkenburgh, R. B. (Robert Bruce), 1821-1888 Voorhees, Daniel W. (Daniel Wolsey), 1827-1897 Wade, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1800-1878 Wadsworth, James S. (James Samuel), 1807-1864 Wallace, Lew, 1827-1905 Warren, Gouverneur Kemble, 1830-1882 Washburne, E. B. (Elihu Benjamin), 1816-1887 Webb, Alexander Stewart, 1835-1911 Welles, Gideon, 1802-1878 Wentworth, John, 1815-1888 Wilson, Henry, 1812-1875 Wilson, James F. (James Falconer), 1828-1895 Windom, William, 1827-1891 Wood, Fernando, 1812-1881 Worden, John Lorimer, 1818-1897 Wright, Horatio Gouverneur, 1820-1899 Yates, Richard, 1815-1873

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