![[Civil War] Black, James W. (1825 - 1896) Rare Photograph of Black Regiment Drummer](http://www.schubertiademusic.com/cdn/shop/files/Civil_War_Drummer_Photo113.jpg?v=1722186769)
Original CDV photograph by the important early American photographer, J.W. Black. In fine condition, with the photographer's 173 Washington St., Boston imprint on the verso. A highly unusual image of an African-American man in uniform, seated on the ground with legs splayed apart, mallet raised in his right hand with his arm obscuring his face, and a large drum resting at his feet. A visually striking image of an unusually candid and impromptu pose.
Approximately 180,000 African-Americans, many of whom were formerly enslaved, volunteered for service during the Civil War. This total represented about 10% of the Union forces and they officially began to fill the ranks after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued in the fall of 1862.
The subject of the present photograph may have been a drummer from the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, a regiment that was one of the first official black units in the United States armed forces and which saw extensive federal service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Frederick Douglass helped to bring African American troops to the Union Army, and his good relationship with President Lincoln helped convince the President to make emancipation a cause of the Civil War. Two of Douglass' sons served in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, which was made up entirely of African American volunteers and was commanded by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.
James Wallace Black, known professionally as J.W. Black, was an early American photographer whose career was marked by experimentation and innovation. In March 1860, Black was commissioned by the publishing firm of Thayer and Eldridge to photograph Walt Whitman when he was in Boston to oversee the typesetting of his 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass, Black's studio at 173 Washington Street less than a block from the publishing firm of Thayer and Eldridge. Later, Black made the first successful aerial photographs in the United States and was also the leading authority on the use of the magic lantern, a candlelight-powered projector that was a predecessor of today's slide projectors.
There are hundreds of J.W. Black carte-de-visite portraits of soldiers and officers of various Regiments, predominantly MA and ca. 1860-65, in the holdings of the the MA Historical Society and in the The Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs at the Library of Congress. The present photograph, seemingly unrecorded anywhere, is not among those, nor, according to our research, are there any other J.W. Black images of African-American soldiers in those collections.
Original CDV photograph by the important early American photographer, J.W. Black. In fine condition, with the photographer's 173 Washington St., Boston imprint on the verso. A highly unusual image of an African-American man in uniform, seated on the ground with legs splayed apart, mallet raised in his right hand with his arm obscuring his face, and a large drum resting at his feet. A visually striking image of an unusually candid and impromptu pose.
Approximately 180,000 African-Americans, many of whom were formerly enslaved, volunteered for service during the Civil War. This total represented about 10% of the Union forces and they officially began to fill the ranks after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued in the fall of 1862.
The subject of the present photograph may have been a drummer from the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, a regiment that was one of the first official black units in the United States armed forces and which saw extensive federal service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Frederick Douglass helped to bring African American troops to the Union Army, and his good relationship with President Lincoln helped convince the President to make emancipation a cause of the Civil War. Two of Douglass' sons served in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, which was made up entirely of African American volunteers and was commanded by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.
James Wallace Black, known professionally as J.W. Black, was an early American photographer whose career was marked by experimentation and innovation. In March 1860, Black was commissioned by the publishing firm of Thayer and Eldridge to photograph Walt Whitman when he was in Boston to oversee the typesetting of his 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass, Black's studio at 173 Washington Street less than a block from the publishing firm of Thayer and Eldridge. Later, Black made the first successful aerial photographs in the United States and was also the leading authority on the use of the magic lantern, a candlelight-powered projector that was a predecessor of today's slide projectors.
There are hundreds of J.W. Black carte-de-visite portraits of soldiers and officers of various Regiments, predominantly MA and ca. 1860-65, in the holdings of the the MA Historical Society and in the The Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs at the Library of Congress. The present photograph, seemingly unrecorded anywhere, is not among those, nor, according to our research, are there any other J.W. Black images of African-American soldiers in those collections.