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Civil War CDVs


SteveR
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Jim Baker

Hi Steve,

 

I enjoy looking at old photos but don't know a lot about them. Could you tell me what CDV stands for?

 

BTW, it is an interesting photo. I also enjoy studying Lincoln.

 

Thanks,

Jim

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CDV = "Carte de Visite", a small format photographic print on card stock. They enjoyed tremendous popularity in the 1850s and onward, used by individuals to give their portraits to friends and family and by professionals as advertising, such as the Booth CDV.

 

Most were studio portraits, so the detail in them can be very handy for historical research. You'll see military poses where you can read the buttons on the uniforms.

 

Very collectable in their own right, they can interesting personality to other collections.

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Carte De Visite literally a "visitor's card" used something like a business card. Most CDVs are about the size of a modern business card. They were produced in quantity and the subject would hand them out as the occasion required. For example Booth may have presented them to admirers and people in the business of staging plays.

 

Apparently photographers would also keep a stock on hand and sell them to anyone wanting to purchase one. This was especially true of Civil War personalities, so studios like Brady's and others actively sought to have people pose for images.

 

However "common" people also had their images recorded on CDV. They are obviously more durable than the processes developed on glass, and were a positive image unlike ferrotypes. CDVs are often found with postage stamps and addresses on the reverse where the CDV was mailed usually to a relative. These mailed CDVs are more desireable to collectors.

 

CDVs were so popular and inexpensive that albums especially made to display CDVs were manufactured. In my family the album had mostly CDVs of familiy members and friends. There were two CDVs of soldiers identified as family. There was also four CDVs of Civil War Generals, all of which were similarly identified and all from the Brady studio.

 

The images printed on this format were very stable and usually survive in very good condition if not otherwise abused or neglected. The format seems to have been replaced by cabinet cards shortly after the Civil War and CDV images were often copied and re-printed in the larger and even more stable cabinet card format.

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Greg Sebring

Quite often the subject would sign their name to the back side of the card so you will find them with original signatures. These , in turn, would be presented as calling cards at formal occasions.

 

Greg

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Jim Baker

Thanks guys,

 

These are really interesting. I have found a few stores on eBay selling these and enjoy looking through their listings.

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I would like to point out that this CDV was likely produced to market "Booth the Actor", and not "Booth the Assassin". Of course, this image became popular after Lincoln's death in the light of infamy, and not fame.

 

Chris

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teufelhunde.ret
Carte De Visite literally a "visitor's card" used something like a business card. Most CDVs are about the size of a modern business card. They were produced in quantity and the subject would hand them out as the occasion required. For example Booth may have presented them to admirers and people in the business of staging plays.

 

Apparently photographers would also keep a stock on hand and sell them to anyone wanting to purchase one. This was especially true of Civil War personalities, so studios like Brady's and others actively sought to have people pose for images.

 

However "common" people also had their images recorded on CDV. They are obviously more durable than the processes developed on glass, and were a positive image unlike ferrotypes. CDVs are often found with postage stamps and addresses on the reverse where the CDV was mailed usually to a relative. These mailed CDVs are more desireable to collectors.

 

CDVs were so popular and inexpensive that albums especially made to display CDVs were manufactured. In my family the album had mostly CDVs of familiy members and friends. There were two CDVs of soldiers identified as family. There was also four CDVs of Civil War Generals, all of which were similarly identified and all from the Brady studio.

 

The images printed on this format were very stable and usually survive in very good condition if not otherwise abused or neglected. The format seems to have been replaced by cabinet cards shortly after the Civil War and CDV images were often copied and re-printed in the larger and even more stable cabinet card format.

 

Thank you, very informative.

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Interesting? Yes. But this is picture of the civilian assassin of a U.S. President. It is an inappropriate posting as this U.S. Militaria Forum is "Dedicated to the heroes who put these tools to work in freedom's name." Booth's picture doesn't fit in here. I have a lot of "interesting" non-U.S. military items that I could post but wouldn't because this is not the place for them. I think it should be taken down to avoid other "Not military but interesting" submissions.

Bob

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Bobgee,

 

I am sorry to say, I couldn't disagree more. John Wilkes Booth is an importat figure when studying this time period. Just because he had commited a dispicable act of tyranny, does not mean that he is not worthy of discussion on this forum. To "black-out" names that we dislike, is to only sugar coat history, and act like certain events never happened. This is not a fair treatmet of history. I am all for the United States, and the U.S. Militaria Forum. But let me ask you this:

 

How different was the fire bombing of London, by the Luftwaffe any different than the Allied bombing of Dresden? There is little difference.

 

The moral of the story is this: Despite our own fervant patriotism, (Including my own), we need to humble ourselves, and understand, and accept that the United States has it's own dark past. In war this is especially true, and by its very nature, there is little good that can come out of it. In war, we, as a people can act both with compassion, and as animals. Anyone who has been there will attest to this. To understand American miltary history is to learn with an objective mind.

 

Chris

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Interesting? Yes. But this is picture of the civilian assassin of a U.S. President. It is an inappropriate posting as this U.S. Militaria Forum is "Dedicated to the heroes who put these tools to work in freedom's name." Booth's picture doesn't fit in here. I have a lot of "interesting" non-U.S. military items that I could post but wouldn't because this is not the place for them. I think it should be taken down to avoid other "Not military but interesting" submissions.

Bob

 

Bob,

I also have to disagree. Booth was not a civilian, but an agent of the Confederacy. He had met with Jefferson Davis and other ranking Confederate officials. His initial plans involved kidnapping President Lincoln and forcing the war to an early end. He served the Confederacy as much as John Bell Hood or Pat Cleburne. Now if you want to ban it because it is not a true "U.S." item, but a "C.S.A." item, you may have be able to argue that point.

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Bob Hudson
Bob,

I also have to disagree. Booth was not a civilian, but an agent of the Confederacy. He had met with Jefferson Davis and other ranking Confederate officials. His initial plans involved kidnapping President Lincoln and forcing the war to an early end. He served the Confederacy as much as John Bell Hood or Pat Cleburne. Now if you want to ban it because it is not a true "U.S." item, but a "C.S.A." item, you may have be able to argue that point.

 

 

I have deleted several posts that got too far afield. CSA militaria is US Militaria (this was a war between states, not nations) and while Booth may not have been a rank and file Confederate soldier, he acted to affect the outcome of the war and probably thought of himself as a combatant. His CDV is a curiosity of this purely American war and not an excuse to argue the causes of the war or lambast others who see history differently than you do.

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