Mistaken Identity and Fame Fixation
By Kurt Luther Ann Shumard, Senior Curator of Photographs at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, reached out to me with a question about a possible misidentification. A glass plate negative
By Kurt Luther Ann Shumard, Senior Curator of Photographs at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, reached out to me with a question about a possible misidentification. A glass plate negative
By Kurt Luther Civil War photo sleuthing is more than just giving a name to an unidentified soldier or sailor portrait. While a name is a critical clue in rediscovering
By Kurt Luther When MI Senior Editor Rick Carlile approached me to help identify a carte de visite of a seemingly unremarkable Union officer, I did not expect that this
By Kurt Luther How can we find photos of Civil War soldiers connected to a particular battle? Earlier this summer, I was confronted with this question when Emma Nostheide, a
By Kurt Luther The pair of cartes de visite of a young African American boy transformed from a runaway slave into a Union drummer boy are among the most memorable
By Kurt Luther In past columns, we often focused on identifying Civil War soldier photos. However, military images are a much broader genre, and one type of portrait that has
By Kurt Luther When photo sleuths hit a brick wall trying to identify the subject of a Civil War portrait, they often turn from the foreground to the background, using
By Kurt Luther During the Civil War years, the Washington, D.C., area was surrounded by a ring of 68 US Army forts known today as the Civil War Defenses of
By Kurt Luther Most photo sleuths focus their attention on the subject of a Civil War portrait. This makes sense, as identifying the subject is typically the primary goal. Furthermore,
By Kurt Luther Last autumn, I visited Vermont for a week of hiking during peak foliage season. It was my first time stepping foot in the Green Mountain State since