Historical Indulgences

ca. 1850’s, [ambrotype portrait of a younger boy and a gentleman engaged in a game of chess]

via the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photographs Collection

ca. 1860’s, [ambrotype portrait of Union colonel Benjamin Franklin Watson with his servant and a table with an assortment of objects]

via Heritage Auctions

ca. 1860, [post mortem portrait of a gentleman]

via the Boston Public Library on Flickr, Print Department

ca. 1863, [ambrotype portrait of a Civil War induction officer with a lottery box]

via the Library of Congress, Civil War Collection

The National Conscription Act of 1863 created a lottery system where men, between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, could have been drafted into military service during the Civil War. In New York, outrage over compulsory military service caused riots to break out in the summer of 1863. Both the Union and Confederacy had their own respective conscription acts.

ca. 1860’s, [ambrotype portrait of a Confederate soldier wearing a plaid shirt and a holstered pistol. He carries a large bedroll, a percussion rifle and a kepi with the letters “4 SLG” for the 4th Sumter Light Guards]

via Heritage Auctions

ca. 1861-65, [hand-tinted ambrotype portrait of a Confederate soldier in the uniform of the 11th Virginia regiment with knapsack and bedroll]

via the Library of Congress, Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs

ca. 1860, [ambrotype portrait of Victor Prosper Considerant with books]

via the Southern Methodist University Central Library, Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photography Collection

ca. 1855, [ambrotype portrait of a hawk perched on gauntlet of a falconer]

via the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photographs Collection

ca. 1860-80, [hand-tinted ambrotype portrait of Charles King Mallory in uniform]

via the Virginia Historical Society, Photographs Collection

ca. 1850-1900, [two ambrotype portraits of leather workers, housed and found side-by-side in a double pressed-paper case]

via Christopher Wahren Fine Photographs

ca. 1850’s-70’s, [ambrotype portrait of twin girls from the Watts family, dressed in identical fur-lined outfits]

via Jack and Beverly’s Cased Image Collection

ca. 1848-1880, [ambrotype portrait of a broody gentleman with his respective wind instrument*]

via the Musée d’Orsay

ca. 1860’s, [ominous ambrotype portrait of Henry Baker, of Sanbornton Bridge N.H., wearing a cape]

via the Antiquarian Society, Ambrotype Collection

ca. 1850, [post mortem ambrotype portrait of a child]

via the Cleveland Museum of Art, Photography Collections

ca. 1860-1900, [ambrotype portrait of a watchmaker with his tools]

via Christopher Wahren Fine Photographs