Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Ambrotype |
Title |
Richard Kidder Meade, Jr. and Unidentified Soldier |
Catalog Number |
0985.13.02126 |
Description |
Sixth-plate ambrotype; two men posed, side by side, seated in chairs, both have legs crossed left over right, both in single-breasted US military uniforms; man on viewer's right has arm around the shoulders of man on left; men are holding hands, with their clasped hands on left thigh of man on right; man on viewer's left is wearing infantry lieutenant's shoulder boards; man on viewer's right is wearing artillery lieutenant's shoulder boards; man on left is identified as looking at camera, hair parted on side, clean shaven, wide bow tie, fitted tunic, nine buttons visible, all buttoned except for center four, dark trousers with light piping down side; man on viewer's right is unidentified, looking at camera, hair parted on side full beard and moustache, white shirt collar folded over uniform tunic at neck, image plate disintegrated where tie might be, eight buttons visible on buttoned tunic, three buttons on right cuff, light trousers with dark piping down leg; oval gilt mat; preserver is stamped with simple foliate pattern; case is leather-covered wood, embossed on both obverse and reverse exterior sections with urn and foliate scroll; interior obverse case is lined in red [faded] velvet embossed with furn scroll; interior edges of case are gilded with scroll; obverse and reverse case sections held together with black cloth tape; brass latch and eye in tact; Typed note in box with case reads: "The younger man is R.K. Meade, Jr., of Petersburg, Virginia when a cadet at West Point. He was a Federal officer in Fort Sumter when it was bombarded, but followed General Lee and became a Major in his Corps of Engineers." |
Medium |
Brass/Felt/Glass/Leather/Metal/Wood |
Studio |
Unknown |
Photographer |
Unknown |
Owner Regiment |
Robert E. Lee's Staff, Corps of Engineers, CSA |
Provenance |
Richard Kidder Meade, Jr. (left), and unidentified soldier (right), in a photograph taken while they were cadets at West Point. Meade was a Federal officer at Ft. Sumter when bombarded, but he resigned his commission when Virginia seceded and offered his services to the Confederacy, becoming a major before his death in 1862. |
People |
Meade, Richard Kidder, Jr. Unidentified Soldier |
Search Terms |
Corps of Engineers, CSA Fort Sumter South Carolina Petersburg, Virginia United States Army United States Military Academy, West Point, New York |
Subjects |
Ambrotypes Cadets Cased photographs Engineering Engineers Military officers Photographic studios Photographs Soldiers |