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FRAMED NINTH PLATE DAGUERREOTYPE OF SOLDIER IN UNION PATRIOTIC MAT: EX- BILL TURNER COLLECTION

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Formerly in the collection of well-known Virginia collector and author Bill Turner, this ninth-plate daguerreotype shows a soldier from the waist-up wearing a military winter great coat and a forage cap. He is young, clean shaven, his body angled slightly to the viewer’s left, and his head turned slightly toward the camera. His cap is dark, certainly a dark blue, worn just high enough to clear his features. A narrow bright spot just above the brim of the cap could be a reflection on the brim or chinstrap or the bottom edge of an insignia. His coat is a typical military greatcoat, or overcoat, certainly light blue, with standing collar and cape that he has kept buttoned, with four small buttons showing on its front and two small buttons on the standing collar at right that point to a militia or state issue coat, as does the upper button on the cape, which appears to be rimmed.

We can see why the image attracted Bill Turner, for it has a good deal of the look of a military academy cadet at the very beginning of the war, with Virginia or even VMI coming  immediately to mind, but the military, patriotic and overtly Union motifs of the impressed mat make it tough not to take it as an early war or just pre-war Union image. Not only are there US flags at the upper corners and a drum and cannon in the lower corners, but there is a ribbon at bottom center reading “The Union Now and Forever.” The photographer may have been using up old stock, of course, just as he was relying upon an older method of photography, but it is difficult to think the sitter or his relatives would not have insisted on something different if he had not sided with the Union, and Bill Turner’s interest in Virginia and Confederate material may be influencing the interpretation of the image. Militia companies saw a surge in Virginia and throughout the south, after the John Brown raid and Lincoln’s election, but with secession sentiment gaining strength in the south there were some northern state forces, in Massachusetts for instance, where companies were recruiting and pledging to answer any call from the state or federal government to preserve the Union.

Whoever the soldier was, this is an interesting image showing a few thin stains but with good clarity and resolution. The image was professionally conserved and re-glassed, with details noted on tape on is reverse. The notes indicate the plate is stamped “HBH [Eagle] 40,” which is the mark of Connecticut makers Holmes, Booth & Hayden, and dating it 1856 to ca. 1861 (the “40” indicating the silver is 1/40^th of the plate’s mass.) This would fit with a just slightly prewar or very early wartime date for the image, with the forage cap adopted by the army in 1858 and coming into general military fashion.  It is housed in black thermoplastic hanging frame with the brass hanging loop in place. The border is decorated with raised geometric and foliate motifs. The lower left corner was broken off, but does not detract much and the arrangement is solid.  [sr] [ph:L]

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