Books and Manuscripts

Photomontage commemorating the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment and the end of slavery in the United States

New York: Powell & Co., 1865. Oval albumen print mounted to card. MS. on verso in an unknown hand. Foxing along oval mount, scattered short closed tears to same; mount wrinkled, likely from damp. Albumen: approximately 16 x 13 3/4 in. (406 x 349 mm); card: approximately 20 1/4 x 18 1/8 in. (514 x 460 mm).

A scarce contemporary photomontage commemorating the end of slavery in the United States with the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Featuring portraits of President Lincoln at bottom, Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin at top, and encircled by all 157 senators and congressmen who voted in favor of passing the amendment. Schuyler Colfax, pictured at center, was Speaker of the House of Representatives when the amendment passed, and he would become Vice-President under Ulysses S. Grant. The amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the required 27 (of 36) states on December 6 of that year.

Copies held in Cornell University, the Morgan Library, the National Portrait Gallery, the Gilder Lehrman Institute, the University of Rochester, the Henry Ford Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Indiana Historical Society Library. As this photo was popular at the time, it was printed in various sizes, on different mounts, and sometimes with a different imprint. Some copies were issued with a printed key identifying each individual (not included here).