#184-CIVIL WAR SALE: GROUP OF 3 CDV & ONE TINTYPE PHOTOS OF FAMILIES IN THE NORTH

These photos (a total of four) were all found in a box of personal items from the Civil War years but are of the "home front," family members who likely were spurred on to create family albums for returning soldiers and for various family members. A sitting and print or multiple prints were within the limited budgets of families We made the decision to acquire these without any further provenance. We can say that 1) all are from the North during the war years (see the back mark on the three CDV's), 2) all are originals and not later reproductions and 3) they provide a look into how adults and children--families--dressed on special occasions. Children and their parents wore their finest clothes for photographs that would be part of the family's history.

Photography for the general population was still very new during the middle of the 19th century and people took advantage of the opportunity to visit a studio near where they lived to create a family album. Virtually every city, large and small, had one or more photographers readily available for sittings. Many such collections of photos, in a box or in an album, also included posed photos of soldiers. Most had the soldiers posing with a variety of weapons likely not part of their personal arsenal but were intended to show the soldier as the strong military man....that most weren't! When you look through photos of soldiers in uniform, home on leave more likely than just about to report for the first time. Sadly, it was unspoken but often thought of: The families might never see their young soldier again and the photo would be so very important.

A LITTLE HISTORY ABOUT USING THESE PERSONAL TREASURES
I have always felt that both of my History Bank business endeavors--the writing and publishing about history and the sale of historical material--have always been inexorably linked. Following is a bit of the story about this 45-year-long trail; it's not text particularly important to my selling Civil War items, but I hope you will find it interesting. If you have questions and comments about this approach, or perhaps specific questions about the items in this sale, please don't hesitate to ask!

OVER THE YEARS we have found family albums and more often, envelopes or boxes of CDV's and other prints the backbone of history books written and produced by The History Bank. For example, in our upcoming 2026 world's fair sale, we will have one lot that represents a family lost to history. The actual album is not included, but the large stack of photos from one family's visit to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition will all be sold in our next sale as ONE LOT. You will see an obvious difference in quality from the 1860's to the 1890's. "Kodaks" (as the first personal hand-held cameras were known) were now available for the first time and what better event to chronicle than the family's once-in-a-lifetime experience visiting the the world's fair.

And as you would guess, such personal photos have played an integral part of the many histories I have both written and produced. My first book, published in 1980, was based on one family's glass negatives taken during and immediately after the Klondike gold rush. There are many 1890's Klondike photos in archives, but the 250+ 11x14-inch heavy glass negatives we discovered were personal and not intended to be a photojournalist's reportage about the gold rush. The photos were were all taken by a pair of professional photographer brothers who went north along with tens of thousands of others. Their plan was to open a photo studio in the small boom town that had sprung up along the mining claims.

They were very successful photographing all the activity, but focusing on people, their customers. They built an amazining photographic studio and when the gold rush wound down making no more millionaire miners, the brothers stayed while 90% of those who came north for gold did not.

The remained as part of the small town community, still taking photos as their primary business. After nearly a decade in the North they were ready to return to the Seattle area and restart their lives. It became apparent that they couldn't take a couple thousand window-sized glass photo negatives, so they took their favorites, primarily of friends and families and of course many of those family and friends were working mines, so those went in the crates to ship to Seattle.

Years later chards of broken glass were found where the studio once stood and many of the rare glass negatives became part ofthe community in different ways; one was as the glass used to build a green house.

As a historian and magazine reporter prior to writing that 1980 book I had relied primarily on archived photos to illustrate articles I wrote. The success of that first book opened up all-new vistas for me; a dozen more histories also relied on unusual illustrative material I found and it made each book better for not relying on the same universe of photos as other writers and authors.

And this sale, and much of The History Bank's selling of historical items, are a direct result of that first book. This sale is part of that chain of history linked to Klondike photos; I have written three Civil War books and produced and published a total of eight bookd about the Civil War. It's been a very interesting 45-year journey writing about history and selling items integral to those books.

This lot consists of the 4 different photos shown--3 CDV's and one tintype; the reason for more than 4 photos is because we have also included the backmarks on the three CDV's. The History Bank's 7-book Civil War series primarily for schools and libraries has resulted in about 700,000 copies for all of the books. It certainly is the largest and most successful (based on total revenue as well as recognition/awards received) publishing project we have undertaken. We have published several books with sales of 20,000-50,000, but the majority of those we produced often only went through one pressun of perhaps 5,000 copies. The Young Readers History of the Civil War has also had an adult readership besides the schools and libraries. And I also wrote an 8th History Bank book about the war, as well, which was not part of that series.

FYI, as with all lots in this sale, we have endeavored to make them available to customers for half (or less!) of typical retail. The four photos in this lot would retail for anywhere from $10-$25 each, or a lot price of $40-$100.