U01154 LARGE CIVIL WAR PHOTOGRAPH & INSIGNIA, AND FIRST WAR PHOTOGRAPH, GROUP. A seventy-two piece grouping, all from the estate of one family, comprised of seventy-one photographs and insignia on a period card. The 8 7/8" x 7 3/4", moderately age yellowed and brittle card has sewn to its top two, 4 1/2" x 2 3/4", black wool patches with heavily tarnished bullion wire floral motifs embroidered to them. These are, as is explained in the note written beneath them, "Shoulder Straps from the coat of Rebel General Foster of Missouri. Major Samuel K. Thompson arrested General Foster in the presence of a number of the General’s Staff, without help, and brought him into the Union Camp while he was 1st Sergeant of the 1st Kansas Cavalry in 1862. The Shoulder Straps and Sask [?] were presented to Major Thompson for his bravery by General Powell Clayton, at that time Colonel of the 1st Kansas Cavalry." General Clayton went on to become a congressman and, later, ambassador to Mexico. It should be noted that these appear to be collar tabs rather than shoulder straps, and their history, as recorded on the card, would be very difficult to verify. The card has separated along its fold line, and the moderately soiled black wool insignia have noticeable moth nips to them. A pharmaceutical advertisement is printed to the reverse of the card. Five Civil War era photographs, all of the then Second Lieutenant Samuel K. Thompson mentioned above, of the 25th Infantry, follow. One is a lightly colorized "tin type," within a paper frame, and the remainder are glued to cardboard backings. All are lightly to moderately age yellowed and soiled. Another "tin type," again lightly colorized, of a Union Infantry officer, wearing a sash across his uniform and resting his gloved left hand upon the hilt of his sword, continues the grouping. He is in an atypical pose, and the 1/4 plate has a tag glued over three period tax stamps to its reverse, with what appears to be "Capt. Aaron L. Hanger" and "54th U.S.C[t]. Infty" handwritten to it. The photographs which follow, with the few exceptions noted, are all from the First World War or immediately after. They include twenty-eight, 5 1/8" x 3" images, twelve of artillery batteries and sixteen of New York harbor, Brest, and vistas along the Rhine. Two, identical, 5 3/8" x 3 7/16", images of members of a gun squad, taken in 1919. Three, 3 7/8" x 5 3/4", portrait photographs of a young soldier within protective cardboard folders. Two, identical, 6 1/8" x 7 3/8", candid photographs of a decorated Private. Three, 4 1/2" x 2 3/4", images of camp life. Two, 3 1/4" x 2 3/8", images, one of two soldiers on a motorcycle with sidecar, another of a soldier with his dog. Two, 5 5/8" x 3 3/8", images of aviators. Eight, 3 1/2" x 3 1/2", images of a ruined castle. Three, 5 7/8" x 3 7/8", images, two of a small house with women on its front steps, and one of a young man chopping wood. Finally, twelve photographs of differing sizes, which include Mary Pickford (famous silent film actress) at an informal military gathering kissing the American flag, a parade of mounted artillerymen, a destroyed village, a First World War era aviator, and a Second World War era Captain. All of these images are lightly age yellowed and soiled, and most have explanatory notes handwritten to their reverses. Overall, an impressive, and varied, grouping.

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