Ushering in a New Era of Soldier Identification
Back in February at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, I glimpsed the future of soldier photo identification. In the conference room of a building on campus, professor Kurt Luther brought our
Tag: photo sleuth
Merrill Carbine Leads to a Soldier’s Identification
By Kurt Luther In this edition of Photo Sleuth, we present another of our most compelling reader-submitted stories. This submission comes from Frederick Gaede. An author of countless articles for
Unknown No More: A Georgia Corporal and His Wife Are Identified
By Kurt Luther Since this column first appeared two years ago, we have often emphasized the collaborative, participatory and community-oriented character of photo sleuthing. At the end of each column,
How a “Concurrent Service Timeline” Helped Solve the Mystery of a Group Portrait Identification
By Kurt Luther Identifying a Civil War soldier in an individual portrait can be tricky enough. But for advanced photo sleuths, sorting out multiple soldiers in a group portrait poses
The Value of Photo Inscriptions as an Identification Tool
By Kurt Luther The majority of subjects in Civil War photos are anonymous, because, naturally, as most were known to contemporaries, there was little need to record their identities. As
Early Photo Sleuths In the Dead Letter Office
By Kurt Luther Not long ago, I received a gift of a carte de visite of an unidentified Civil War soldier, probably a Union private, wearing a short jacket and
Revealed: The Identity of an Officer in an Iconic Group Portrait
By Kurt Luther As photo sleuths, many of us spend significant time working with relatively obscure images. We may stumble across a loose tintype at a flea market or unearth
The Photo Sleuth’s Digital Toolkit
By Kurt Luther A Civil War photo sleuth is only as good as his or her tools. Knowledge can help us notice clues in an image and reach some basic