Half-length studio albumen portrait of Henry Wilson. N.p., n.d. Approx. ## x ## in. albumen on contemporary cardstock with printed caption "Hon. Henry Wilson." Later pencil inscription notes that he was an abolitionist and the dates of office as Vice President and as a senator.

A stately portrait of Henry Wilson (1812-1875), one of the most important politicians and abolitionists of the mid-19th century. Wilson a leading Republican before, during, and after the Civil War. Beginning his political career as a Whig, he became a founder of the Free Soil Party in 1848, working throughout the 1850s to form an anti-slavery coalition. In 1855, Wilson was elected to represent Massachusetts in the United States Senate, serving until 1873. During the war, he was joined the Radical Republicans and used his militia experience to serve as the Chair of the Senate Military Affairs Committee. He also was able to successfully pass bills outlaw slavery in Washington D.C. in 1862 and incorporate African Americans into the war effort. After the war, Wilson supported Reconstruction, and in 1872, became vice president during Ulysses S. Grant's second presidential term.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Politics, Reconstruction, Radical Republicans, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Historic Photography, Early Photography, Albumens, CDV, Carte de Visite, Cabinet Card]