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, Alfred S. Hartwell, who compiled this collection, 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
 

Now Available Online: Legislative Photograph Collection

We at the State Library are excited to announce that our photograph collection of members of the Massachusetts legislature, also known as Photograph 361, has been made available through our DSpace electronic documents repository.

This collection is a priceless historical, genealogical, and legislative resource that provides visual documentation of over 3400 individuals who served in the Massachusetts General Court from 1855 up to 1908. These photographs, many of which cannot be found elsewhere, wonderfully supplement resources such as the biennially-published Public Officers of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and help paint a more complete picture of the history of the General Court.

This project would not have been possible without the folks at the Boston Public Library’s digitization lab, as well as the support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

For more information about our legislative photograph collection, please contact our library’s Special Collections Department at 617-727-2595.

Kaitlin Connolly

Reference Department

Unidentified Legislative Photographs: The Mysteries Continue!

A few months ago, I shared an interesting photographic mystery that piqued our curiosity: the seated picture of a woman from our bound 1869 Senate photograph album.  We at the State Library wondered—who was she?  What relationship did she have with the legislature in 1869?  Was she an important figure in Massachusetts history?  Unfortunately, we haven’t come any closer to an answer, but these questions did engender many spirited attempts to uncover her identity—and we have had a lot of fun throughout the process.

However, she is just the beginning of many more mysteries surrounding identity.  While most of the legislators and officers in our legislative photograph collection (known also as Photograph 361) have been successfully identified, there are about 70 photographs that still remain otherwise.  In an effort to attach names to these faces, as well as involve the public in this fun project, we have made all of the unidentified photographs available for viewing on our State Library Flickr account.

If you recognize any of these past members of the Massachusetts General Court, or have strong suspicions that you might know who one or more of them are, let us know by contacting the State Library at reference.department@state.ma.us. 

Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Department

 

 

A Photographic Mystery: An Anonymous Picture of a Woman in the 1869 Senate Album

Sometimes a little mystery makes a project all the more interesting! In a recent blog entry, I reported on our newly digitized legislative photograph collection and some of the characteristics I observed. Since then, I have been working ardently on creating and fixing metadata that will be attached to each photograph. Although the project is moving along pretty smoothly, some snags are to be expected—namely trying to identify unidentified legislators, officers of the court, and other images included within the collection. I’ve been largely successful with the bound Senate albums, relying greatly on the relationship between the order of the pictures in the album and the senators’ seating arrangements found in the Manuals of the General Court, but I am finding that the loose photographs are incredibly difficult to identify.

One image in particular pleasantly surprised me: our Senate album for the year 1869 concludes with a final picture of an anonymous woman. Keep in mind, the first female Massachusetts legislator did not serve until 1923 (also see our updated list of women in the Mass. Legislature), so this is a bit of a head-scratcher. Who was she? Was she the widow of an important Massachusetts legislator? Women’s suffrage continued to be an active cause during this time period—could she have been making waves in the legislature? Was she an officer for the Senate? Her picture comes at the end of the album where the officers were typically located. Nevertheless, officers and appointees of the General Court in the 19th century were, like legislators, exclusively men; it wasn’t until the early 20th century that we begin to see women appointed to positions such as cashiers and stenographers. Unfortunately, the 1869 Manual of the General Court, as well as the Journal of the Senate for that year, provide no helpful information on who she was and the role she played.

If you recognize the woman in this picture, or have strong suspicions that you might know who she is, please contact the State Library at reference.department@state.ma.us.

Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Department

State Library Legislative Photograph Collection

Thanks to the hard working folks at the Boston Public Library, our large collection of legislative photographs has finally been digitized! The collection, which spans inclusively from 1855 up to 1908, is comprised of various formats of loose photographs, as well as bound legislative portrait albums depicting members of the Massachusetts General Court during their years served. Also digitized are the versos of photographs when necessary, which provide important identifying information and, in many cases, the name of the photography studio.

As mentioned in our previous blog post, which details our efforts to produce a comprehensive database based on our legislative biographical file, our goal is to make all of these images electronically accessible to the public in the near future. The photographs will compliment images already available in our digitized collection of “Bird Books” and Souvenirs of Massachusetts Legislators, as well as fill in some of the years that are not currently available.

While browsing through the photographs, one thing I found interesting was that many images (as evidenced on those from the 1855 Senate) were signed by their respective legislators and have various handwritten messages such as “With great respect”, “Yours in love”, “Fraternally yours”, and “Receive my considerations”. Also notable in this collection is a wonderful early image of John James Smith (1825-1906), a native Virginian, entrepreneur, and African American legislator who was elected to serve Boston in 1868, three years after the conclusion of the Civil War.

In addition to the services provided by the BPL, the project was supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. For more information about our legislative photograph collection, please contact our library’s Special Collections Dept. at 617-727-2595.

Kaitlin Connolly

Library Technician, Reference Dept.