Thursday, November 29, 2012

CDV Photo Young Man in a Military Cadet Style Uniform 1870s

This is an 1870s (ish) CDV of a clean shaven young man in a military style uniform.  There is no information of any kind on the CDV - no backstamp, no photographer's info, no writing, absolutely nothing. 

That's too bad, because it makes it hard to even conjecture about this person.

So, primarily I'm interested in what kind of uniform he's wearing.  It is certainly a military style uniform, but lots of uniforms are military style, without actually being military.

My first thought was that this is probably a cadet's uniform, and I had to make an assumption, having nothing else to go on, that it was probably not one of these private military college prep type schools.  I had to assume it was something like West Point, or perhaps VMI or the Citadel.

So we spent a lot of time (well, some time) online looking at 19th cadet uniforms, especially at West Point and VMI.  And I can't tell anything for absolute certainty, but this looks closer to a West Point uniform.  The VMI collars seemed to be higher.  Also, I don't really know what color the jacket is - it looks gray, but it could be easily be something else. 

Any out there know for sure?


2 comments:

  1. I googled the VMI uniform and "decoration" and buttons are different that the jacket shown here. The one you show is identical to a West Point uniform (http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/273-military-academy-dress-uniforms/)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Howdy Grace thanks for your input! I agree, the more I look around, the more I'm convinced it is West Point. Thanks for the link I'll take a look.

    ReplyDelete