How to Discover Soldier Photos from a Specific Civil War Battle
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
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Oscar F. Douglas: The Photographer Behind the Iconic USCT Drummer Boy
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
Photo Sleuthing Some Virginia Tech Cadet Portraits
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
Civil War Photo Sleuth Goes Social
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
Hampton’s Battery at Gettysburg and Puerto Rico
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
Investigating the Iconic Portraits of a USCT Drummer Boy
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
How to Trust the Worthiness of an Identification
By Kurt Luther What makes a Civil War photo identification truly airtight? If a soldier portrait is unidentified, we often consider the gold standard as locating an identical (or very
Lost and Found in the Library of Congress
By Kurt Luther In January 2020, John Banks posted on his Civil War blog a detailed examination of a glass negative in the Library of Congress (LOC) collection, titled, “Washington,
Why Photo Sleuths Do—and Don’t—Share With the Community
By Kurt Luther In these columns, I frequently emphasize the importance of community in Civil War photo sleuthing. Most of us benefit from the resources freely shared by other members
Evidence-Based Tips for Using Civil War Photo Sleuth
By Kurt Luther Photo sleuthing is, at its core, a process of elimination. We start with a mystery photo whose subject could be any of the three million soldiers who