Albumen print carte de visite on card mount with gilt double-rule border, captioned in faint printed typography at the bottom margin: "FRED. DOUGLAS.". Ca. 1863 - 1865. Mount measures approx. 2 1/2 x 4 in. Corners historically trimmed for period album insertion.

A powerful, commanding Civil War–era portrait of legendary abolitionist, orator, author, and statesman Frederick Douglass (1818 - 1895). Douglass is captured in vignette bust view, his head turned slightly to the right with an intense, unyielding gaze. He sports his characteristic halo of graying wavy hair, a full mustache, tailored dark frock coat, crisp white standing collar, and dark cravat.

Douglass understood the political and social authority of photography better than nearly any contemporary, deliberately using unsmiling, regal photographic portraits throughout his career to dismantle racist caricatures and project Black intellectual gravity and citizenship. This particular print features the scarce, early wartime phonetic misspelling in the typeset title margin ("FRED. DOUGLAS."), characteristic of small-run Northern publishing houses and antislavery distributors during the height of his recruitment drive for the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry regiments. Wartime cartes de visite of Douglass remain among the most sought-after portraits in all of 19th-century American photography.

[Carte de Visite, CDV, Frederick Douglass, Fred Douglas, African Americana, Abolitionist, Civil Rights, Orator, Statesman, 54th Massachusetts, Emancipation, Civil War Era, 1860s Photography]

Very good condition. The print exhibits crisp focus and detail, along with fantastic tone. The mount displays light age toning and gently clipped corners for period album display.