Sixth plate hand-gilt studio tintype. Troy, New York: Christopher C. Schoonmaker. Full leatherette case. Photographer’s 282 River St. imprint embossed on red velvet pad.

A fascinating medical image photographed with great sensitivity and artistry. The patient sits facing the camera directly with his shell jacket worn on his intact arm. His amputated arm is exposed for the camera, with his shirt and jacket pulled down. Seated next to him is presumably his doctor or other medical professional. This man wears a checked jacket and holds a pan beneath his patient’s residual limb. Additional medical accoutrement and bandages are laid out on the knees of the two men. It is plausible that the veteran was a patient of the Ira Harris Military Hospital (commonly called “The Barracks”).

Schoonmaker established his photography studio at 282 River St. as early as 1855 and operated as a photographer in Troy through the 1860s and into the early 1870s. For a further discussion of Schoonmaker’s photography, see the essay “Keepsake Commodity: A Mid-Nineteenth-Century Encased Daguerreotype by Christopher C. Schoonmaker” by Andie Fialkoff (included in the exhibition People and Props in Photography, 1840s-1940s, Columbia University in the City of New York, Media Center for Art History).

Condition: case split at hinge.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Medical History, Amputations, Early Photography, Cased Images, Tintypes, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes].