Sunday, September 15, 2013

Almira Richardson, 1860s, photo by S. Anderson, New Orleans, Louisiana



This is a CDV photo of a little girl with the name Almira M. Richardson written on back.  It was taken by S. Anderson of New Orleans.  It is about 2 1/4 by 4 inches, has square corners,  the mount is very thin and it has thin borders, all of which date it to the 1860s.

What makes this interesting to me is that there is an orange two cent  internal revenue tax stamp on back. This were issued by the federal government and were required to be placed on back of CDVs (among other things, I assume) from August 1, 1864 to August 1 1866.

Of course the early to mid 1860s was a time of civil war in the United States, and Louisiana was one of the confederate states.  My assumption is that this tax stamp dates it from sometime between April 1865 (the official end of the civil war) and August 1866.  New Orleans was occupied during part of the civil war period, so it's possible the stamp could have been placed on earlier.