American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography

4 photographs of Newton Heston Mack (1843-1920), who served as a drummer with the 153rd Pennsylvania Infantry during the Civil War. Following the war, Mack worked as a painter and photographer. The photographs, which all appear to have been printed after the war, include:

Cabinet card made from a Civil War-era tintype of Mack dressed in uniform, posed with his drum. -- CDV of Mack posed with a woman, presumably his wife. Tunkhannock, PA: B.S. Williams. -- Self portrait of Mack standing in a studio, posed as if he is working on a drawing or painting that rests upon an easel. Wellsboro, PA: N.H. Mack. 7 x 3 1/2 in. (sight) photograph on cardstock mount with Mack's studio imprint in lower margin. -- Photograph of Mack seated in a studio setting, drinking from a teacup, with a camera and tripod at his side. 4 3/4 x 3 1/2 in. (sight) photograph. Matted and framed together, 12 1/2 x 17 1/2 in.

At the age of 18, Newton Heston Mack
enlisted on 10/11/1862 as a musician and mustered into Co. K, 153rd PA Infantry. The regiment was involved in a number of major engagements, most notably the Battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.
Mack mustered out on 7/23/1863 and later co-wrote History of the One Hundred and Fifty-Third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers Infantry with William Kiefer. The back of the frame in which the photos are housed includes a personal inscription from an unknown individual who lived with Mack following the war, indicating that the individual used to "watch him paint," and that Mack "used to wear his Civil War uniform (not drummer boy) and ride in wagon to cemetery for Memorial Day with the other 'old soldiers.'"

A compelling group of photographs of an identified Civil War drummer-turned artist and photographer.