[CIVIL WAR]. Albumen photograph of Private Rufus T. Giffin, Company M, 14th Regiment New York, Heavy Artillery, wounded Fort Steadman, Virginia, 25 March 1865, infection of left hand, photographed and assembled by Reed Brockway Bontecou, M.D.

5 3/8 x 7 1/2 in. oval albumen photograph on 9 1/2 x 11 1/2 in. cardstock mount (light spotting, small puncture to lower mount edge). Verso with attached printed information sheet identifying the subject with the nature, treatment, and prognosis of his wound. Provenance: From Dr. Reed Brockway Bontecou's personal teaching album of photographs of wounded Civil War soldiers; Stanley B. Burns, MD Medical Photography Collection.

Rufus T. Giffin enlisted at 29-years-old at Potsdam, NY as a private on 20 December 1863. He mustered into Company M of the 14th New York Heavy Artillery. He received a gunshot wound at Fort Steadman, VA on 25 March 1865 with the amputation of his index, middle, and ring fingers of his left hand occurring the same day. He was admitted to Harewood on 2 April 1865 and the medical description notes that "the amputation was performed at the meta-carpo-phalangeal articulation." Further noting that "the patient did well and was furloughed April 26th, 1865." Military records note that Giffin was discharged for disability on 28 June 1865.

RARE: No photographs have ever been sold from this album prior to this auction. 17 images were given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1992 from the current consignor (Gift of Stanley B. Burns, M.D. and The Burns Archive, Accession numbers: 1992.5127-5143). About four government and university libraries have some similar images. Original photographs made during the war and kept by Dr. Bontecou and not reproduced by the SGO.

Dr. Bontecou's photographs are not only viewed as historical records but also as examples of fine art photography, transcending the typical images used to document medical conditions. In the Fall of 2022, a selection of Dr. Bontecou's photographs will be on display at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Spain's national museum of 20th-century art in Madrid.
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Dr. Bontecou was a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1842 and studied medicine with Drs. John Wright and Thomas C. Brinsmade of Troy, NY. He attended classes at the University of the City of New York from 1844 to 45, and later graduated with his medical degree at Castleton Vermont Medical College in 1846. In 1857, he performed the first successful American case of ligating the right subclavian artery for diffuse traumatic aneurysm of the axillary artery, and one of the first three on record.

At 37-years-old, enlisted at Troy, NY on 24 April 1861 as a surgeon with a rank of major. He was commissioned on 14 May 1861 into Field & Staff of the 2nd New York Infantry and saw action at Big Bethel, the first battle of the war. He was discharged at Fort Monroe, VA on 14 September 1861 to be appointed medical director of the United States Army General Hospital "Harewood" in Washington, D.C., one of the largest hospitals of the war with 3,000 beds. In this role, he made clinical photographs, including this example here. Intended for teaching fellow army surgeons, wound evaluation, and healing techniques, the images still retain an unusual degree of artistry and are considered desirable of all wounded Civil War soldier images. They should not be confused with the images, mainly taken by Bell and Ward, and issued by the Surgeon General’s Office in the 1870s for pension purposes. Dr. Bontecou's images were not reproduced by the SGO.

He was also brevetted lieutenant colonel on 13 March 1865. After the war, he continued his medical practice in Troy, NY. A member of several medical societies, he was a charter member and fellow of the American Surgical Association.

Stanley B. Burns, MD, Historic Medical Photography Collection