Photo-Illustrated Books & Photography Albums
Portraits of the Class of 1858, of Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. Springfield: D.B. Spooner & Co., Photographers, 1858. Including pre-war portraits of Union officers.
4to (304 x 240 mm). Letterpress title and "Statistics of the Class" leaf, engraved frontispiece, and 61 salt print portrait photographs of faculty and students, each approx. 6 x 4 3/4 in. or smaller, mounted to album leaves, many inscribed on the facing page, many identified (contents with occasional spotting throughout, prints overall in very good to near excellent condition). Contemporary gilt-lettered and paneled black morocco, spine in 5 compartments with 4 raised bands gilt, gilt-lettering in 2 (some wear to joints and fore-corners).
Provenance: Ethan Allen Paul Brewster (name in gilt to upper cover).
Brewster (1837-1877) attended Harvard Medical School after graduating from Amherst College. He left school in 1861 to enlist with the Union Army and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant with the 8th Massachusetts Infantry, Co. I. Near the end of 1861, Brewster was commissioned a captain with the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry, Co. A (1861-1863), then a major (1863-1864). He was wounded in action at Drewry's Bluff, VA (5/16/1864) and Cold Harbor, VA (6/3/1864) before mustering out in October 1864. Following the Civil War, Brewster returned to medical school, graduating from Harvard in 1865. He went on to practice medicine in Wisconsin and Michigan until his death in 1877. Although a portrait of Ethan Allen Paul Brewster is not included in the album, a retouched albumen portrait of Brewster accompanies the lot, along with an engraving of Amherst College with penciled notations on verso identified to a Brewster family member. The portrait, approx. 7 1/8 x 5 1/4 in., is mounted on cardstock bearing the imprint of the National Copying Co., Chicago, IL.
Among the many other faculty and staff in the album are Edward Hitchcock, geologist and third President of Amherst College; William Smith Clark, professor, colonel with 21st Massachusetts Infantry; Daniel Bliss, clergyman, private with 34th Massachusetts Infantry, WIA New Market, VA; Havilah M. Sprague, surgeon with US Army; James Collins, surgeon with 3rd Pennsylvania Corps, assistant surgeon with US Army; Chester W. Hawley, chaplain with185th New York Infantry; Henry Goddard Thomas, lawyer, major general by brevet, served with 5th Maine Infantry, 11th Infantry US Army, 79th and 19th US Colored Troops, worked with the Freedman's Bureau; and John Walker, Agent for Sanitary Commission during the Civil War.
This lot is located in Cincinnati.
