Three-quarter length albumen CDV. Inscribed to verso "Oct. 1862" and "Taken unaware while reading report of the first day of the drafting in the Civil War." Housed in leather CDV album with flap closure. Album also includes 2 additional CDVs, a gem-sized tintype, and a snapshot dated 1914. 

A diminutive album featuring a wonderful CDV portrait of an older middle-aged man reading a newspaper. The period inscription on the reverse dates the image to October 1862 and states that the subject was photographed "unaware while reading report of the first day of the drafting in the Civil War." The date may be a reference to the Militia Act of 1862, which authorized a militia draft in cases where a northern state could not meet its soldier quota. In the time of the first national drafts, a man could exempt himself from Army service by furnishing a substitute or paying a few hundred dollars. At the risk of reading too much into what we see here, this well-dressed subject in his relaxed pose evokes the classic cry of "Rich man's war, poor man's fight."

Other photographs in the album range from the later 1800s through the early 1900s, and may be part of a family group. More research may identify them. 

[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]