Albumen vignetted illustrated cabinet card portrait after a photograph. Frederick, Maryland: Markens & Bielfeld, 1885. Publisher's imprint to mount recto. Mount verso includes the eponymous poem by John Greenleaf Whittier and a short biography of Frietchie with an advertisement of other related views published by the photographers.

A large format portrait of Union heroine Barbara Frietchie (1766-1862). The almost certainly partially apocryphal story, popularized by the 1863 poem by Whittier, tells of the elderly Frietchie who confronted General Stonewall Jackson and defended the American flag crying, "Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, but spare your country's flag." Although its authenticity was questioned immediately, the story was promoted by her family and the city of Fredericksburg, who used her name and reputation to attract tourists for decades after the war. Typically only seen in CDV format.

Condition: Occasional spotting.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Maryland, Historic Photography, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Cartes de visite, Cabinet Cards].