RAVAGES OF WAR: A VISUAL RECORD OF ONE SOLDIER'S EXPERIENCE 

Three tintypes of the same Union soldier: one quarter plate and two sixth plates, each housed in a separate thermoplastic case.

A rare and compelling visual record of a single soldier’s wartime transformation, these three portraits document the same Union serviceman at successive stages of his Civil War experience. Though his identity remains unknown, the group offers an intimate study in contrast and progression. In the quarter-plate tintype and in one of the sixth-plate examples (accompanied by a clipping of a poem preserved within the case) the sitter appears youthful and comparatively untried, likely at or near the outset of his military service. By the time of the remaining sixth-plate portrait, however, his expression has markedly changed: more severe, more gaunt, more self-possessed, and seemingly shaped by the hardships of active service. 

[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]