Beschreibung:

Title: Civil War era photograph album, an exceptional collection of 258 vintage carte-de-visite portraits of members of Lincoln’s Cabinet, his Supreme Court and members of the 39th Congress (1865-67), over 200 of them signed Author: Place: Various places Publisher: Date: 1865-1870 Description: Quarto photo album by L. Prang, 23x23 cm (9x9") period brown cloth with modern leather rebacking, spine lettered in gilt. Housed in a custom blue cloth chemise and full blue morocco clamshell box. 257 cartes de visite in album, plus CDV of Abraham Lincoln separately framed. Rare Civil War photograph album, an exceptional collection of 258 vintage carte-de-visite portraits of members of Lincoln’s Cabinet, his Supreme Court and members of the 39th Congress (1865-67), featuring Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner’s famed portrait of Lincoln taken shortly before his assassination—with over 200 carte-de-visites boldly signed—including two portraits signed by Lincoln’s Treasury Secretary and Chief Supreme Court Justice Salmon P. Chase, many with photographic studio imprints of photographers Mathew Brady and Gardner. An exceptional photographic record of Lincoln and the Civil War documented in rare carte-de-visite portraits, signaling the power of “heroic portrait in a bold new form.” Many carte-de-visites with the studio imprints on the verso of Civil War photographers Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner; many with inscriptions signed "J.W.P." on the verso indicating date of acquisition and/or the date signed by the subject, along with the customary 2-cent stamp affixed to the verso, characteristically used as verification. Hamilton & Ostendorf: O-116. Contemporary title leaf printed "American Card Album" with inked description below: "Autographs of the Executive, and U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives, obtained mostly in 1866, at Washington D.C. during the Session of Congress. J.W. Page." With J.W. Page inkstamps dated 1870 to title page and within. Leaves with faint early inked headings and captions in an unidentified hand. This exceedingly rare Civil War photograph album contains over 250 vintage carte-de-visites, including renowned Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner's famous portrait of President Lincoln, printed from a photograph taken shortly before Lincoln's assassination. Gardner's Lincoln carte-de-visite leads this exceptional contemporary photographic album, containing over 200 carte-de-visite signed by key members of Lincoln's cabinet, his Supreme Court, and the senators, territorial delegates and representatives of the 39th Congress (1865-67). Lincoln was photographed by Gardner between February and early April 1865, when he visited Gardner's Washington photographic studio for a sitting not long before his death on April 15. "Printed from one frame of the lost original multiple-stereographic negative," Gardner's photograph is reportedly among the last photographs taken of Lincoln (Mellon, 173-5). Corner-mounted on the same leaf as the Lincoln carte-de-visite, which contains the imprint of Gardner's photographic studio on the verso, are the signed carte-de-visites of members of his cabinet: Salmon P. Chase (Treasury Secretary, 1861-1864), Hugh McCullouch (Treasury Secretary, 1865-1869), William Dennison, Jr. (Postmaster General, 1864-1866), James Speed (Attorney General, 1864-1866), James Harlan (Secretary of the Interior, May 1865-August 1866). The two succeeding leaves contain nine carte-de-visites of Supreme Court Justices, including the unsigned carte-de-visite of Justice Roger B. Taney—"remembered most for Dred Scott." With the death of Chief Justice Taney in October 1864, Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, succeeded him. Additionally displayed on the two leaves is the signed carte-de-visite of incoming Chief Justice Chase, along with those signed and/or inscribed by seven (of nine associate justices): Justice Samuel Nelson, Justice Nathan Cliff