My Daguerreotype Boyfriend

Two unidentified sailors in Union uniforms in front of painted backdrop showing the sea and a warship. (Library of Congress)

Lew Wallace, c. 1853, in his mid-twenties. Union general, governor of New Mexico territory, diplomat to the Ottoman Empire, where he gathered material for the bestselling Ben-Hur (which Ulysses S. Grant reportedly read in a single 30-hour sitting.)

From the submitter cmcdwh: 

This handsome fellow is my great-great-grandfather, Lew Wallace, around 1853. The daguerreotype was taken around 1853 and is owned by the General Lew Wallace Study in Crawfordsville, Indiana. By the time he was a Major-General in the Civil War, Lew had grown an impressive beard, but I like him better this way. Lew sat on the military tribunal that tried another daguerreotype boyfriend, Lewis Thornton Powell. [Ed: Gasp!]

It’s a colorized Lewis Powell! And we’re just fine with that…

Second Lt. James G. Sturgis. Killed in action at Little Big Horn.

Cumberbatch, is that you?

Submitted by thefutileprecaution

Henry Adams, age 20, 1858, at his Harvard graduation.

The grandson of John Quincy Adams (and the great-grandson of founding father John Adams), during the civil war Henry Adams was private secretary to his father, a Congressman in the House of Representatives.

His influential circle of friends was known as “The Five of Hearts,” and included Lincoln’s secretary John Hay. He later became friends with Walt Whitman, Rudyard Kipling, Teddy Roosevelt, and many others.  

We highly suggest Patricia O’Toole’s biography The Five of Hearts for more on this gregarious studmuffin.

Submitted by Mary Mann

Brothers Stephen D. and Moses M. Boynton, Privates in the South Carolina Cavalry Battalion, c. 1861 (Library of Congress)

And now a submission from The Smithsonian. (Love it when these great institutions get in touch with their boyfriends of their very own!)

Thought we would share our latest post with you. Is this a photo from the Civil War or an Urban Outfitters ad? 

Lt. George Custer and Fellow Union Troops Picnicking During the Civil War. May 20, 1862.

Captain Jesse Sharpe Barnes, age 19 c. 1861-2. Barnes was killed on May 31 at Seven Pines, VA.

The left portrait of Confederate Captain Barnes is in the Civil War collection of the Library of Congress. The portrait on the right was found by a collector in an antique shop in 1992, and it wasn’t until the LOC put their images on Flickr in 2009 that the two were recognized as being the same person. 

Notice that Barnes is wearing the exact same grey coat in each picture, just in a different style. Presumably, the right picture was taken second, after the coat had seen a few battles and Sharpe grew a war-ready moustache. What do you think?

Captain Jesse Sharpe Barnes is also one of the featured faces on the 2013 My Daguerreotype Boyfriend calendar, available for purchase. 

Unidentified Union solider, hand-colored tintype c. 1861-5 (Library of Congress)

For those of you in New York City, here’s a sneak peek at the limited-editon MDB calendar that will be on sale at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, Thursday at 7pm as a part of Tumblr Prep! All proceeds from the sale of the calendar will go directly to Housing Works.

You may notice it’s a dual 1863 and 2013 calendar—that’s so you can coordinate your schedule with your Daguerreotype BF when he’s off fighting at Gettysburg. On the reverse side are letters from Civil War soldiers to their ladies at home.