(3) VIEWS OF FRANCES (FRANCIS) CLAYTON, alias “JACK WILLIAMS"

Three portraits: a carte‑de‑visite and two tintypes, in patriotic paper surrounds. United States, circa 1863–65.

Albumen print CDV (center image) and two tintypes (left and right), each set into contemporary printed and hand‑colored patriotic mounts with draped U.S. flags; the central mount surmounted by a spread eagle. Modern shadow‑box frame.

A rare grouping of three views traditionally identified as Frances (Francis) Louisa Clayton, also recorded in period sources as Frances Clalin, who publicly presented herself both as a Union soldier under the name “Jack Williams” and as a woman. The central CDV shows a full‑length standing portrait in uniform and slouch hat with a cavalry sabre; the left tintype presents a variant standing view in uniform; the right tintype depicts her seated in women’s dress.

Clayton became one of the most visible “women soldiers” of the period, though modern scholarship has scrutinized and, in places, questioned the reliability of contemporary newspaper narratives about her service. Regardless, these photographs remain among the rarest canonical visual records of a woman adopting male military guise during the Civil War.

[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, Stereographs] [Women, Women’s History, Suffragettes, Women’s Movement, Suffrage]