19th-century American political and literary figures album of carte de visite portraits, 1860-1869

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Summary

Title:
Album of carte de visite portraits of 19th-century American political and literary figures
Dates:
1860-1869
Abstract:
Album of carte de visite portraits of political and public figures, probably from the 1860s, most published by E. Anthony or E. and H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York, from photographic negatives by Mathew B. Brady's studio, Brady's National Portrait Gallery.
Extent:
1 album (39 photographic prints on carte de visite mounts) : albumen, c 17 x 13 cm (album)
Language:
Finding aid is written in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Album of carte de visite portraits of 19th-century American political and literary figures (Collection 94/292). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.

Background

Scope and content:

Album of carte de visite portraits of political and public figures, probably from the 1860s, most published by E. Anthony or E. and H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York, from photographic negatives by Mathew B. Brady's studio, Brady's National Portrait Gallery. Most of the portraits are politicians of the era--governors, and U.S. congressmen and senators, such as Thomas Treadwell Davis, and Sidney T. Holmes, congressmen from New York; George Washington Morgan and Martin Welker, U.S. representatives from Ohio; Thomas Hart Benton, U.S. senator from Missouri; Richard Yates, governor, congressman, and senator from Illinois; John A. Nicholson, U.S. representative from Delaware; Roger A. Pryor, who served as Virginia's representative in both the U.S. and Confederate Congresses; Thomas Corwin, U.S. minister to Mexico, and representative to the Ohio and U.S. legislatures; and Henry Clay, who represented Kentucky in both House and Senate, and served as Secretary of State from 1825 to 1829. Other political figures include Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln; and Thurlow Weed, newspaper publisher, politician, and party boss, instrumental in the nominations of many American presidential candidates, including Abraham Lincoln. Among the historians and literary figures represented are William Hickling Prescott, and John G. Nicolay, private secretary and biographer of Lincoln; the poet James Russell Lowell, and writer Washington Irving. Other portraits include those of Albert Pike, Confederate Army officer and influential Freemason; Samuel Osgood, Unitarian minister, and editor of the influential Transcendental journal "The Western Messenger;" U.S. Supreme Court justice Joseph Story; newspaper publisher and Western politician, Thomas Jefferson Dryer; and Matías Romero, Mexican minister to the U.S., and advisor to Porfirio Díaz. There is also a photograph of Washington Irving's home, Sunnyside, a little stone mansion with stepped gables in Tarrytown, N.Y. Although most of the photographs were published by the E. Anthony or E. and H.T. Anthony firms of New York City, at least one bears label of "Geo. S. Tolman Fancy Goods Warehouse, Boston" pasted over the E. Anthony logo.

Biographical / historical:

Nineteenth-century American photographer, best known for his portraits and documentation of the American Civil War. Mathew Brady came to New York as a young man of sixteen, worked as a jewelry case designer, and on the side studied photography with various teachers, one of whom was the photography pioneer, Samuel F. B. Morse. He eventually established studios in New York in 1844, and in Washington, D.C. in 1849, and began earning awards for his daguerreotype portraits, and later, his ambrotypes and albumen prints. His studios did a brisk business in producing carte de visite portraits for soldiers about to go to the front, as the Civil War broke out in 1861. Brady set out to document the war, and organized a staff of travelling photographers, including Alexander and James Gardner, T. H. O'Sullivan, T. C. Roche, S. C. Chester, and David Knox, whom he sent out into the field to record the people, places, and battles of the war. Despite his great achievments and prominent place in the history of photography, Brady died alone and impoverished on Jan. 15, 1896.

Possible decade of production suggested by year that E. Anthony business moved to 501 Broadway, New York (May 1, 1860), and year that his brother Henry T. Anthony joined him in business (1862), and firm became known as E. and H.T. Anthony.

Physical location:
Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.
Physical facet:

Bound in 19th-century bevelled dark brown pebble-grain leather covers, panelled in blind; gilt spine panels, and gold-stamped spine title "Album" in gothic letters; two large ornamental brass clasps (half of the lower clasp missing); all edges gilt; textured white decorated endpapers.

Spec. Coll. copy: in beige cloth clamshell box, with box label "Brady Portrait Album."

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Processed by Jane Carpenter with assistance from Simon Elliott; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé.
Date Prepared:
© 2012
Date Encoded:
Machine-readable finding aid derived from MARC record, encoding added via Notetab Pro. Date of source: 2011 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Album of carte de visite portraits of 19th-century American political and literary figures (Collection 94/292). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
Website