Unidentified photographer / artist 1861-1865 Soldiers‘ Photographs at United States Post Office Dead Letter Office
Carte de visites, tintypes George Eastman Museum Albumen silver prints and tintypes. An unusual grouping of soldier portraits was assembled at the U.S. Post Office's dead letter office and displayed to see if anyone would claim them. Someone took the undeliverable cards and laid them out in a grid, attached them to a board with brass brads, and gave each image a number. This homemade display visually raises the question of the fate of all the men pictured and indirectly references the essential maleness of war, as women are rarely seen in any Civil War imagery.
