Mystery Monday – The Last Full Measure: Civil War Photographs from the Liljenquist Family Collection

Courtesy Liljenquist Collection, Library of Congress

In remembrance of the Union and Confederate soldiers who served in the American Civil War (1861-1865), the Liljenquist Family recently donated their rare collection of almost 700 ambrotype and tintype photographs to the Library of Congress. At the online site for the exhibition, you can read more about the donors and their collection; the photographic processes; the photographers and their studios; and revealing details that can help identify photographs.

Most of the people and photographers are unidentified, and LC wants to know more about them. If you recognize a face from your family, a regiment, or a photographer’s painted studio backdrop, it can help LC with identification.

You can read some of the personal stories that did survive in notes found with the photo cases.  

 

Visit the online exhibition here. There's also a set up at LC's Flickr Commons site.