Large CDV album (empty). Embossed leather and silver fixtures. Philadelphia: William Rutter & Company, ca. 1870s. 9 1/2 x 11 3/4 x 2 1/2 in. Silver plaque to verso reads: "Presented to / Mrs. Roscoe Conkling / by the / Officers of the / 97th Regt. N.Y.V." 

WITH vignetted studio bust portrait albumen cabinet card of Roscoe Conkling. New York: L.C. Mundy, ca. 1870s. Photographer's imprint to mount verso. 

A photograph album presented to Julia Catherine Seymour (1827-1893), wife of Roscoe Conkling (1829-1888). Julia received this album from the 97th New York, a regiment that was nicknamed the "Conkling Rifles," most likely because Roscoe presented them a costly banner that reflected the colors of the unit (New York State Military Museum). 

Roscoe Conkling was a New York lawyer and politician whose career spanned the turbulent decades before, during, and after the Civil War. Born and raised in the state, he first entered politics in 1850, when he served as Oneida County District Attorney as a member of the Whig Party. He later served as the 21st mayor of Utica, New York, from 1858 to 1859, by which time he had joined the Republican Party. Conkling remained a Republican for the rest of his career, serving two terms as a U.S. Representative, first from 1859 to 1863 and again from 1865 to 1867, before becoming a U.S. Senator from New York, a position he held from 1867 to 1881.

As a senator, Conkling helped draft the Fourteenth Amendment and emerged as a leading figure in the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party during Reconstruction. Often regarded as the party’s “Old Guard,” the Stalwarts championed the civil rights of African Americans while opposing President Rutherford B. Hayes’s efforts at civil service reform. Conkling’s staunch views brought him into conflict not only with Hayes but also with President James A. Garfield, and those disputes ultimately led to his resignation from the Senate in 1881. Though he never again held elective office, he remained active in political life and continued practicing law until his death seven years later.

The 97th New York Infantry was organized in 1861 at Boonville, New York, and mustered into service for a three-year term beginning in February 1862. It was commanded by Colonel Charles W. Wheelock, Lieutenant Colonel John P. Spofford, and Major Charles Northrup. During its service, the regiment fought in several major engagements, including Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg. By war’s end, it had suffered the loss of 13 officers and 325 enlisted men.

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