By Kurt Luther This column’s photo sleuthing story began with an inquiry from Karen Chittenden, Senior Cataloging Specialist in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Chittenden
By Kurt Luther In previous columns, we have typically focused on identifying a single photo of a soldier or a small group. What approach can we take when researching an
By Kurt Luther In 2020, the Smithsonian Institution released nearly three million digital images of its collections for the public to download freely and view online. These included more than
By Kurt Luther Since we launched the Civil War Photo Sleuth (CWPS) website in 2018, more than 33,000 identified Civil War photos have been added. About 20,000 of these photos
By Kurt Luther Photo sleuthing is not always a blank slate. While many Civil War photos come to us unidentified, others bring names and stories with varying amounts of evidence
By Kurt Luther One of the most remarkable attributes of the Civil War photo sleuthing community is the willingness of its members to help one another. In a previous column
By Kurt Luther In April of this year, the Facebook page “Civil War Pittsburgh,” managed by public historian Rich Condon, posted an intriguing photo of a group of Civil War
By Kurt Luther The pair of portraits of an African American young man—one version in tattered clothes and another in the uniform of a Union drummer boy—is among the most
By Kurt Luther In my first “Photo Sleuth” column in 2015, I wrote about the power of combining perseverance and luck. After years of fruitless searching for photos of my
By Kurt Luther Photography was the dominant form of professional portraiture during the Civil War. Its ubiquity owed in part to its high fidelity and low cost. However, other forms
