Image of the Day

. Signed 1865 Ulysses S. Grant carte de visite photograph by Brady & Co. – currently up for bidding at Heritage Auction Galleries (the same place that sold those D.B. Cooper $20 bills I posted about before – I'm getting their catalogs now and I'm amazed at the things that come up for sale).

A carte de visite was a standard 2.5" x 4" albumen print patented in 1854 by a Paris photographer named Andre Adolphe Disderi. Their popularity spread quickly – people would get them made and then trade them with their friends and people they met.

Paragraph, President

Pacific Standard the blog is closed for President's Day, i.e., I am just back from NYC and playing catch-up. Great trip, loads to report, tons of pictures…all starting tomorrow. Also, some interesting changes and developments for Pacific Standard the studio. And it's fashion week.
So look out – stuff is about to get real interesting up in here.

Above, maybe my all-time favorite photo of Abraham Lincoln (click to enlarge). The photo was taken by famed Civil War photographer Matthew Brady at Antietam, Maryland, on or shortly after September 17th, 1862 – the first major battle fought on Northern soil and the bloodiest single day of the entire war, with over 23,000 casualties. Pictured with Lincoln are General J.A. McClernand and "Major" Allen Pinkerton, the head of Union Intelligence (which would become the Secret Service) and of the infamous Pinkerton National Detective Agency.