A carte-de-visite format Civil War photograph of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. This is a vignette bust shot mounted on a card with “JEFF. DAVIS.” pre-printed on the bottom edge. There is no photographer’s backmark, most often indicating a photographer copied it from another photographer’s work and did not want it traced back to him. Nor is there a tax stamp, indicating its sale likely prior to Aug/Sept 1864, and most likely early in the conflict when people were eager to collect images of Confederate personalities for the novelty if nothing else, which likely wore off after a few years and hundreds of thousands of casualties. The use of “Jeff” Davis in the caption rather than “Jefferson” or “President” is a pretty clear indication the maker had a northern audience in mind. The card is in good condition, with a slight water stain on the right edge of the card, not affecting the albumen paper with the image, and otherwise just slight soiling and age stains. Davis’s general history will need no retelling. The image is a good indicator of how most of the general public at the time pictured him, either from photographs like this or newspaper woodcuts based on such photographs.  [sr][ph:L]

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