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 Clifford, Justice Robert C. Grier, Justice David Davis, Justice Samuel F. Miller, Justice James M. Wayne, and Justice Stephen J. Field. (The Supreme Court had been enlarged to ten justices in 1863; the Judiciary Act of 1869 reconfigured it to nine.) The major decisions of the Chase Court include Ex parte Milligan (1866) on the issue of military justice, and Chase would preside "ably over the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson in early 1868" (Hall, 859, 137). The collection continues with vintage carte-de-visites of members and associates of the 39th Congress—many signed. "Photography was more intricately involved in the American Civil War than in any other historical event in the 19th century… photographs in carte-de-visite formats represents one of the few remaining, untapped sources of contemporary Civil War information" (Darrah, 74, 87), and signal the power of "heroic portrait in a bold new form" (Panzer, 77).
"The 39th Congress was one of the important Congresses in our history… When someone creates the Hall of Fame of the Congresses we need to include the 39th Congress… When it convened on March 4, 1865, the war was still ongoing. To be sure, within only slightly more than a month, the major Confederate Army had surrendered. But even then, the 39th Congress could not be sure the war was over… It took President Johnson until April 2, 1866 to declare that the insurrection in all of the Confederate states except Texas was over and until August 20, 1866… to determine the insurrection in Texas was at an end… Over the course of its term, the 39th Congress passed 714 pieces of legislation. This was more legislation than any congress had ever passed up to that time." Faced with the uncertainty about war's end and with the nation still in turmoil, the 39th Congress nevertheless passed "the Civil Rights Act in 1866, the first Civil Rights Act in our history. It is the first time there was a statutory definition of citizenship and it also defines some of the rights of citizens. President Johnson vetoed the statute, but it was passed over his veto. Next, the Congress extended the Bureau of Freedmen and Refugees for another two years… Third, the Congress proposed the 14th Amendment… In these actions, as well as their other legislation, the 39th Congress made its mark upon the face of U.S. Constitutional Law." In the First Session, the House of Representatives passed the 14th Amendment with a vote of 128-37. "After some debate and additional changes, the Senate approved the Amendment overwhelmingly by a vote of 33-11… When the amended Amendment went back to the House, the vote was again overwhelming: 120-32. The support for the Amendment in the Congress is beyond question." The Amendment then went to the states for ratification and on July 21, 1868, Congress declared it was adopted. The members of the 39th Congress "wrote into the 14th Amendment their highest ideals and their best aspirations. They said they were trying to 'perfect' the Constitution… Their efforts should inspire us to endeavor to make the Constitution, in interpretation and application as well as word, if not perfect, at least more perfect than we inherited it" (Ayers, Akron Law Review 42:2009: 1021-49, emphasis in original).
List of Carte-de-Visites (Each signed and/or inscribed unless otherwise noted).
Executive Department (1 leaf: 6 carte-de-visites): President Lincoln (unsigned, Alex Gardner studio imprint on verso); Salmon P. Chase (Treasury Secretary, 1861-64), Hugh McCullough (Treasury Secretary, 1865-69), William Dennison, Jr. (Postmaster General, 1864-66), James Speed (Attorney General, 1864-66), James Harlan (Secretary of the Interior, 1865-1866). U.S. Supreme Court (2 leaves: 9 carte-de-visites): Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (unsigned); Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, Justice Samuel Nelson, Justice Nathan Clifford, Justice Robert C. Grier, Justice David Davis, Justice Nathan Clifford, Justice Samuel F. Miller, Justice James M. Wayne and Justice Stephen J. Field. U.S. Senate. 39th Congress (10 leaves: 56 carte-de-visites) (Maine) William P. Fessenden, Lot M. Morrill; (New Hampshire) Daniel Clark, Aaron H. Cragin; (Vermont) Solomon Foot (unsigned), Jacob Collamer (unsigned), Luke P. Poland, George F. Edmunds; (Massachusetts) Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson; (Rhode Island) Henry B. Anthony, William Sprague; (Connecticut) Lafayette S. Foster, James Dixon (unsigned); (New York) Ira Harris, Edwin D. Morgan; (New Jersey) Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, Alexander G. Cattell; (Pennsylvania) Charles R. Buckalew, Edgar Cowan; (Delaware) George R. Riddle, Willard Saulsbury, Sr.; (Maryland) Reverdy Johnson, John A. J. Creswell; (West Virginia) Peter G. Van Winkle, Waitman T. Willey; (Ohio) Benjamin F. Wade, John Sherman; (Michigan) Jacob M. Howard, Zachariah Chandler; (Indiana) Thomas A. Hendricks, Henry S. Lane; (Illinois) Lyman Trumbull, Richard Yates; (Missouri) John B. Henderson, Benjamin Gratz Brown (unsigned); (Kentucky) Garrett Davis, James Guthrie; (Wisconsin) Timothy O. Howe, James R. Doolittle; (Iowa) James W. Grimes, Samuel J. Kirkwood; (Minnesota) Alexander Ramsey, Daniel S. Norton; (Kansas) Samuel C. Pomeroy, James H. Lane; (California) John Conness, James A. McDougall; (Oregon) George H. Williams, James W. Nesmith (Nevada) William M. Stewart, James W. Nye; (Tennessee) David T. Patterson (unsigned); (Kansas) Edmund G. Ross. Also with: Jerome B. Chaffee (Delegate, Colorado Territory: 1871-74; Senator, 1875-78); John Evans (Governor of Colorado Territory, 1862-1865)
U.S. House of Representatives: 39th Congress (33 leaves, 186 carte-de-visites). (Maine) John H. Rice, Frederick A. Pike, Sidney Perham, John Lynch; (New Hampshire) James W. Patterson; Edward H. Rollins, Gilman Marston; (Vermont) Portus Baxter, Justin S. Morrill, Frederick E. Woodbridge; (Massachusetts) Samuel Hooper, William B. Washburn, Nathaniel P. Banks, John D. Baldwin, George S. Boutwell, Oakes Ames, Thomas D. Eliot, John B. Alley, Henry L. Dawes, Alaxander H. Rice; (Rhode Island) Nathan F. Dixon, Thomas A. Jenckes; (Connecticut) Henry C. Deming, Augustus Brandegee (unsigned), John H. Hubbard, Samuel L. Warner; (New York) Hamilton Ward, Addison H. Laflin, Daniel Morris, James Brooks, Burt Van Horn, William E. Dodge, Roswell Hart, Charles H. Winfield, Henry Van Aernam, William A. Darling, Giles W. Hotchkiss, Thomas T. Davis, Theodore M. Pomeroy, James M. Marvin, Sidney T. Holmes, William Radford, Calvin T. Hulburd, Stephen Taber, John H. Ketcham, Henry J. Raymond (unsigned), Demas Hubbard, Jr. (unsigned), Charles Goodyear (unsigned), John A. Griswold (unsigned), Edwin N. Hubbell (unsigned), John W. Chanler (unsigned), Teunis G. Bergen (unsigned), James M. Humphrey (unsigned), John W. Hunter (unsigned), Nelson Taylor; (New Jersey) William A. Newell; Andrew J. Rogers, Charles Sitgreaves, Edwin R. V. Wright, John F. Starr (unsigned); (Pennsylvania) Thaddeus Stevens, Ulysses Mercur, Glenni W. Scofield, Alexander H. Coffroth, William D. Kelley, Charles O'Neill, Thomas Williams, John M. Broomall, George V. E. Lawrence, Sydenham E. Ancona, Samuel J. Randall, Philip Johnson, James K. Moorhead, Myer Strouse, Abraham A. Barker, Benjamin M. Boyer, George F. Miller, Stephen F. Wilson, John L. Dawson, Adam J. Glossbrenner, Martin R. Thayer, Charles Denison (unsigned), Leonard Myers, William H. Koontz (unsigned); (Maryland) Hiram McCullough, Charles E. Phelps, Francis Thomas, Benjamin G. Harris; (Delaware) John A. Nicholson; (Ohio) John A. Bingham, William Lawrence, Ralph P. Buckland, Robert C. Schenck, William E. Finck, Hezekiah S. Bundy, Reader W. Clarke, Columbus Delano, Francis C. Le Blond, Samuel Shellabarger, Martin Welker, Tobias A. Plants, James M. Ashley, Rufus P. Spalding, Benjamin Eggleston, Ephraim R. Eckley, James R. Hubbell (unsigned); (Indiana) George W. Julian, John H. Farquhar, Daniel W. Voorhees, Godlove S. Orth, William E. Niblack, Joseph H. Defrees, Michael C. Kerr, Thomas N. Stilwell, Henry D. Washburn, Ralph Hill (unsigned), Ebenezer Dumont (unsigned); (Illinois) Elihu B. Washburne, John F. Farnsworth, Abner C. Harding, John Wentworth, Andrew J. Kuykendall, Ebon C. Ingersoll, Shelby M. Cullom, Henry P. H. Bromwell, Lewis W. Ross, Burton C. Cook, Samuel W. Moulton, Anthony Thornton (unsigned), Jehu Baker (unsigned); (West Virginia) George R. Latham, Chester D. Hubbart, Kellian V. R. Whaley; (Michigan) Thomas W. Ferry, John F. Driggs, Fernando C. Beaman, John W. Longyear, Rowland E. Trowbridge, Charles Upson (unsigned); (Wisconsin) Halbert E. Paine, Charles A. Eldredge, Philetus Sawyer, Ithamar C. Sloan (unsigned), Amasa Cobb, Walter Duncan McIndow (unsigned); (Iowa) James F. Wilson, Hiram Price, John A. Kasson, Asahel W. Hubbard, Josiah B. Grinnell, William B. Allison; (Missouri) Robert T. Van Horn, John R. Kelso, Joseph W. McClurg, John F. Benjamin, John Hogan, George W. Anderson, Thomas E. Noell, Benjamin F. Loan, Henry T. Blow; (Kentucky) William H. Randall, Burwell C. Ritter, Lawrence S. Trimble, Henry Grider, Samuel McKee, George S. Shanklin, Lovell H. Rousseau, Aaron Harding, Green C. Smith (unsigned); (Tennessee) Horace Maynard, William B. Stokes; (California) William Higby; (Minnesota) Ignatius Donnelly, Donald C. McRuer, William Windom, John Bidwell; (Kansas) Sidney Clarke; (Nevada) Delos R. Ashley; (Utah)William H. Hooper; (Oregon) James H. D. Henderson; (New Mexico) José F. Chaves; (Dakota Territory) Walter A. Burleigh (unsigned); (Idaho) Edward d. Holbrook (unsigned). Final leaf:: Francis E. Spinner, Treasurer of the United States; Edward McPherson, Clerk, House of Representatives.