Sunday, February 24, 2008

Can You Identify This Location?

David Cress emailed me with a question about a compelling outdoor carte de visite by Armstead & Taylor of Corinth, Miss. According to Cress, "I contacted an architectural historian for the state of Mississippi who did his master's thesis on the buildings of Corinth c1860 and he is positive the photo was not taken in this area. He suspects the photo may have been taken in Tennessee or Georgia while the photographer was traveling with the army," and added, "Do you know anyone who has expertise in the Southwestern theater of war who might be able to help identify the location? Any help would be appreciated."

If you have any ideas, please leave a comment. Here are additional scans that reveal details of the image:
1. Full image
2. Foreground building detail
3. Detail of soldiers
4. Tents in background
5. Farm house and outbuildings
6. Armstead & Taylor backmark

2 Comments:

Blogger Ron Coddington said...

Mystery solved! From David Cress: "After posting the image on a Civil War forum called Civil War History- The South & Western Theaters, one of the members recognized the photo as the pump house for the city of Huntsville Alabama. The area is known as the Big Spring. Based on this information, I was able to find two Civil War photos of the pump house in the book The Image of War 1861-1865. Prior to 1864, the pump house was a wooden structure. According to the book, when the Union army occupied Huntsville in 1864, they tore down the wooden pump house and constructed one of stone."

6:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another print of this in Chicago Public Library is dated on the back May 11, 1865 in a period hand. Another print of the same carte is in Alabama Dept. of Archives and History, Montgomery, given to ADAH by the Wisconsin state archives

3:34 PM  

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