Outdoor albumen CDV. Boston: J. W. Turner, [1869]. “Hero” inscribed in-negative. Copyright statement and “Hero” biography printed to verso.

Verso reads in full: “HERO / Weight, 198 pounds; height, 3 feet 2 inches; length from tip to tip, 7 feet 1 ½ inches. This dog is a Russian Bloodhound; and was imported from Russia in 1859, by a Southern gentleman, for sports of the arena. Soon after the breaking out of the rebellion he was seized by the rebel government, and subsequently used for guarding Union prisoners, at Libby Prison and Castle Thunder, Richmond, Va. His proportions are enormous, — he is believed to be the largest dog in the world, — and is possessed of prodigious strength. He has been engaged in several bear fights, and was successful in all of them. / Photographed by J. W. TURNER, No. 47 Hanover Street, Boston. / Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by W. L. Goss & Co. in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.” 

When Hero ceased guarding Libby Prison, he became a bloodhound following the evacuation of Richmond, Virginia, in 1865. A newspaper article from this time described the process of preparing a bloodhound as drawing blood from each enslaved to present to the hound “that they may at once become familiar with his men, and, at the same time, become more perfected in the hunt.” 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards] [Prisoner of War, POW, Andersonville, Libby Prison] 

Spot to upper left.