PORTRAIT OF PAULINE CUSHMAN (1833–1893), UNION SPY AND SCOUT

Albumen print on card mount, three-quarter length, Cushman in kepi and double-breasted frock with star devices at the shoulders and an infantry-style waist belt; standard CDV format, c. 1864–65. Verso titled in letterpress: “MISS MAJOR PAULINE CUSHMAN, The Union Spy and Scout, who was captured and sentenced to death as a Federal Spy, and was rescued at Shelbyville by the Union Army under Gen. Rosecrans.” Imprint “Published by E. & H. T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York,” with credit “Negative by A. Bogardus, 363 Broadway.”

An important celebrity portrait of Pauline Cushman, the actress-turned-Union operative whose capture by Confederate forces in 1863, death sentence, and dramatic rescue made her one of the war’s most publicized heroines and a rare woman to be accorded the honorary title “Miss Major.”

The Anthony/Bogardus photograph offered here helped popularize her post-war lecture tours and remains one of the most desirable images of a documented female participant in the 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]