Soldiers of the 54th and 55th Regiments on Display

The five portraits ready for exhibit,
individual images are included below

In honor of Black History Month, we are displaying a selection of carte de visites and tintypes that depict soldiers from the Massachusetts 54th and 55th Volunteer Infantry Regiments in our Collection Spotlight case. As part of the Alfred S. Hartwell Collection, these images serve as important documentation of Black Civil War soldiers. The 54th and 55th Regiments are significant because they were the first two regiments comprised of Black soldiers from the North to serve in the Civil War. A monument commemorating the soldiers of the 54th is located on Beacon Street at the edge of Boston Common, directly across from the State House.

A quick explanation of what these items are, since early photographic formats are not necessarily in use today. Carte de visites are small photographs, similar in size to a formal calling card, that were introduced in the United States in 1859 and rose in popularity during the Civil War. They were traded among friends and sometimes collected in albums. As per their name, tintypes were photographs made on tin that was coated with a dark lacquer or enamel to support the emulsion. They were used for portraiture and were prevalent in the United Stats from the 1860s to the 1870s. They were affordable to produce, which added to their popularity. In total, there are forty-four carte de visites and tintypes in the Hartwell collection, but these five are the only ones that depict Black soldiers.

Three of the five images include some identifying information on the reverse. Pictured below are two carte de visites, the inscriptions on the back identify them as Sergeant Andrew Jackson Smith on the left and Segt. Jackson / 55 Regiment on the right.

An image of “Joe” provides the most information in the inscription. He is identified as “Joe / Headquarters / Camp Meigs / Readville, Mass. / Oct 1862.” Camp Meigs was a training camp used from 1862 through 1865. It is in the Readville neighborhood (part of Hyde Park) of Boston, and the 54th and 55th regiments both trained there.

 The following two images are tintypes and include no identifying information:

On January 26, 1863, Massachusetts governor John Andrew received permission from the U.S. War Department to raise a Black regiment as part of the Union Army. Enlistment began in February, and those who joined became the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. There was not a large enough Black population in Massachusetts to support a full regiment, so recruitment efforts were focused not just in Massachusetts and New England, but also throughout the country and even into Canada and the West Indies. The result was that there were so many volunteers that the 55^th Regiment was also formed. The regiments both trained outside of Boston at Camp Meigs (as referenced in the “Joe” inscription) and the 54th departed for the south in late May 1863, with the 55^th departing in July 1863. The National Park Service has articles with information about both the 54^th and the 55^th regiments on their website. 

During the Civil War, Hartwell served as Captain of the 54th Regiment and then as Lieutenant Colonel of the 55th Regiment. Because of his experience with Black regiments, after the war, he spearheaded an investigation into abuses in the recruiting of Black soldiers in the south. The images displayed here are mementos from Hartwell’s time serving with members of the 54th and 55th Regiments, but the collection also includes materials that document his investigation. The collection has been fully digitized and is available in our digital repository. You can also read more about Hartwell in this previous blog post.

Our Collection Spotlight case has features that mitigate the amount of light that exhibited items are exposed to, but due to the sensitive nature of photographs, we are still mindful of the frequency with which they are displayed. Visit us from February 4 through March 4 to take advantage of the rare opportunity to see these images in person.

Elizabeth Roscio

Preservation Librarian