POST-WAR UNMOUNTED ALBUMEN PRINT OF NAVAL COMMANDER MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY, FROM A RICHMOND PHOTOGRAPHER, GEORGE S. COOK & SONS

POST-WAR UNMOUNTED ALBUMEN PRINT OF NAVAL COMMANDER MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY, FROM A RICHMOND PHOTOGRAPHER, GEORGE S. COOK & SONS

Hover to zoom

Image 1 Image 2

$125.00

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 1189-189

Shipping: Determined by Method & Location of buyer

To Order:
Call 717-334-0347,
Fax 717-334-5016, or E-mail

Measures approximately 5.75 inches by just under 3.5 inches wide. Photograph features a waist-up civilian view of Confederate General Thomas Taylor.

The reverse of the image shows a pencil notation: “Mathew [sic.] F. Maury / C.S.A.” as well as “440.”

Overall, this image is in fair condition. There are minor pushes to the corners. The photograph is rolling and the are some folds and cracks to the edges. One tear measuring approximately half an inch on the right-hand side.

Matthew Fontaine Maury (Jan. 14, 1806– Feb. 1, 1873, Lexington, VA) was a pioneering U.S. naval officer and founder of oceanography.

Maury joined the navy in 1825, circumnavigated the globe, and became a lieutenant before a stagecoach accident ended his active service in 1839. He led the Depot of Charts and Instruments, which evolved into the U.S. Naval Observatory, and revolutionized maritime navigation by distributing logbooks to gather data on winds and currents. His work led to the publication of key pilot charts, wind maps, and the influential oceanographic text The Physical Geography of the Sea (1855). Maury’s innovations included charting major oceans, mapping the Atlantic seabed for the first transatlantic cable, and recommending shipping lanes to reduce collisions.

During the Civil War, Maury served as head of Confederate naval defenses and later acted as a special agent abroad. After the war, he briefly worked in Mexico, then returned to the U.S. to teach meteorology at Virginia Military Institute until his death in Lexington, Virginia in 1873.

This image was produced from the original negative by the Cook Studio in Richmond sometime after 1880.

The Cook studio was owned by George S. Cook whose two sons, George LaGrange Cook and Heustis Cook, also worked as photographers. The father, George S. Cook, is famously known for taking the first combat images of ironclads firing on Ft. Moultrie in 1863. George S. was born in 1819 in Connecticut and moved south to Louisiana in 1839. From there, he moved several times (always remaining in the South), making money as a merchant and studying photography until he eventually wound up in Richmond in 1880, where he bought Anderson’s photography studio. This is where many of the original glass plate negatives came from to reproduce his photographs. The Cook studio also purchased other collections of negatives as well.   [cla][ph:cla]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS ITEM, AS WITH ALL OTHER ITEMS AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB SITE,

MAY BE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR LAYAWAY PROGRAM.

CLICK HERE FOR OUR POLICIES AND TERMS.

THANK YOU!

Inquire »

Inquire About POST-WAR UNMOUNTED ALBUMEN PRINT OF NAVAL COMMANDER MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY, FROM A RICHMOND PHOTOGRAPHER, GEORGE S. COOK & SONS

should be empty