Historical Indulgences

ca. 1870-90’s, [carte de visite portrait, likely of an actress], Charles Eisenmann

via Carl Mautz Vintage Photography & Publishing

ca. 1850-70, [daguerreotype portrait of a Southerner with a knife and a pistol]

via Heritage Auctions

ca. 1880, [portrait of a bearded woman, “Mrs. A., Elk County, P.A., Age 24”], I.W. Taber & Co.

via the Slideshow Ephemera Gallery

ca. 1865, [portrait of two gentleman in ladies clothing], Franck

via Luminous Lint, Paul Frecker

ca. 1892, [Portrait of W.S. Penley as “Dona Lucia from Brazil” in “Charley’s Aunt”],  Norman and Burnide

via Luminous Lint, Paul Frecker

ca. 1875, [unidentified gentleman dressed in ladies clothing]

via the International Center of Photography

ca. 1865, [portrait of a gentleman in a bonnet and muff], Bayard and Bertall

via Luminous Lint, Paul Frecker

ca. 1862, “Jimmy Rogers as Miss Eily O’Connor in a burlesque of Dion Boucicault’s ‘The Colleen Bawn’”, Southwell Brothers

via Luminous Lint, Paul Frecker

ca. 1877, “A College Powwow”

As part of Presentation Week, an event at Yale College, freshmen held “powwows” during the hours of the president’s reception:

“As it grew later and darker, Freshmen, covered as to their faces with burnt cork, Freshmen with striped pants, Freshmen with hooped skirts, Freshmen with hoofs and tails, Freshmen with big beards and bobtail coats…Freshmen with all sorts of conceivable and practical disguises…march[ed] slowly across the college yard…for the purpose of celebrating their entrance upon Sophomore year.” (Harper’s Monthly Magazine, 1864)

via The American Tintype, by Floyd and Marion Rinhart, Robert W. Wagner

ca. 1896, [gentleman in exotic lady’s costume], Richard von Krafft-Ebing

via the Wellcome Library, Archives and Manuscripts

ca. 1850-60, [portrait of a woman], Mats Landin

via the Digitalt Museum of Sweden

ca. 1885, “Vernona Jarbeau”

via the George Eastman House Collection on Flickr

ca. 1900, theatrical champêtre

via Photo Verdeau

ca. 1865, “Jeff’s Soliloquy”, photo-collage by Francis Hacker

In this silly, propagandist photo-collage, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America is shown in lady’s clothing, confronted with a Union rifle as he is captured at the end of the Civil War. 

Apparently, on May 10, 1865, when Davis was finally caught, he was in fact wearing his wife’s overcoat and a shawl in an effort to escape detection. Below is a print from a photograph by Alexander Gardner in 1865 of the clothing in which the soldiers discovered Davis.

In addition, here’s a link to the Harper’s Weekly article about the incident around a week after it occurred.

via the American Museum of Photography

ca. 1890

via the Verdeau Photo Collection