The Comprehensive ACW Faux, Fake, Made-Up, Why-Would-Anyone-Do-That Photo Thread

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
cornelia no.jpg

It's not always the obvious photos misidentified for the obvious reasons. This snip is of a young woman at Brandy Station's hospital. She's all over the place on the internet as Cornelia Hancock, our Quaker nurse who left us agonizing accounts of her war. This isn't she. Why is that important? Because once we get sloppy about History it's all up for grabs.


Yes, it's been discussed previously. There's another thread or 6. The thing is, browsing Pinterest there seem to be more every day and worse, they get shared. Some you can track back to websites, some seem invented just for that site. Heck, the photo of Grant at City Point that LoC has devoted a page to, pointing out it's not real is there. Times 200. Just because someone isn't around anymore to object doesn't mean we get to run riot with their images- hence their lives. A few have shown up here on CWT, their ' discoverer ' hoping to cash in for instance by insisting we all agree ' Yep, yep, that's sure Lincoln and he's still dead '. Maybe a few others are just honestly mistaken. A thread here as a kind of repository may be helpful. For instance how do I know that isn't Cornelia? Beyond surviving photos indicating clearly nope, not the same person, she tells us. It's not always that easy, sometimes easier- like one of my favorites- Pinterest.
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Clothing here is around 1890. Thomas Lincoln was born in 1778. He died in 1851. So a little easy. I'm not sure we require documentation proving this isn't Thomas Lincoln, seems a waste. While I'm here, era fashion, what people wore is an awfully good indication of date and something we should really pay a lot of attention to. Styles changed hugely just between 1864 and 1866 for instance- it may not seem important but is sure helpful when it comes to narrowing down dates. In 1864 we were still at war, by 1866 we were gluing ourselves back together.

It's heckishly difficult digging for truth in the first place and striking gold. There's an awful lot of struck tin out there. In the interest of History, a patient reconstruction of facts, genuinely reconstructing photos through examining them seems necessary, no? Asking for contributions and help, too. I have a file stuffed with these things, just added two. It's not smug to insist on our own accuracy- it's History and it's all we've got.

Lincoln is the most popular target, poor guy- which tends to drag Mary along. Here's the thing. Ford's Theater the night of April 14th 1865 Mary Todd Lincoln's life was shattered by a shot- she'd been holding her husband's hand while they talked about where they'd like to go someday. Jerusalem, he said. Then he was gone, his blood and brains on her lap. DO we get to do this to her, or the tragic Rathbones, or the boys who lost that kind, funny father?

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That's also Booth sneaking up behind them. Like someone in Ford's audience that night just happened to catch this on her smart phone. I'm trying to not be snarky but it's hard.

They've been at this for awhile. Library of Congress's wonderful photo investigation of Grant at City Point probably catches Brady's nephew contributing to convoluted History. It's an awesome article.

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http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/cwp/mystery.html

" By learning to question what you see in photographs you can become a better history detective ", from the link. They're being kind. We can put History back where it belongs. It's not easy, profitable or popular. For various reasons folks love clinging to dug-in positions but it's worth it or like I said, it's all up for grabs.

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The photo is era and meant to portray nurses of the war but JUST portray. They were dressed to portray nurses, at a Sanitary Commission Fair. I'm unsure those uniforms ever made it to a battlefield ( or any other ) hospital. The women may have, we do not know who they were. Dix would have blown a gasket. Photo still makes the rounds as ' Civil War Nurses '.

It isn't as prevalent on Ebay now ( it's possible sending pointed emails to sellers was helpful ) but the damage was done- this stuff spreads. Some nice, era family photograph was listed as ' slaves ', something that you saw allllll the time. Because the family was black. And it's an old image. And it's obviously just another awfully proud pair of parents and an unimpressed baby ( babies are always unimpressed by cameras, why? )
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I'm adverse to posting post mortem photos on the grounds these were private images intended for private mourning during the worst moments a family endured-we've seen a few ' Lincoln post mortem ' photos. For some reason cashing in on a murdered man is trendy and worse, those images are all over the internet. There's IS one, soldiers on watch over his open coffin, that's it.

Lee doesn't escape although this doesn't seem to have caught on ( thankfully ). No idea who he was although bet a good military historian could at least narrow the field.
lee oct 2018 lee fake.jpg


Intent of thread is to be explanatory and cover misidentifications, honest mistakes, photo shopped images, deliberate deceptions and opportunistic presentations- and use as many facts required as possible to bring the conversation back to History.Above photo may not require more than " Gosh, it looks nothing like Robert E. Lee. "

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This now famous one, the Lincoln Wedding photo, tomorrow. Two different photos, taken by different photographers glued together.
 
The "nurses's" headgear is hilarious. How long do you supposed that would have lasted in a hospital. Huh, bet they never would have made the journey, tossed out of a train window along the way, landing on some poor unsuspecting cow.
You are so right, JPK, Dorothea would have had apoplexy!
 
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Here's the one I frequently see for sale or depicted on the web that is often misunderstood or misrepresented. It is a stereoview photograph of a small portion of the Gettysburg Cyclorama as painted by French artist Paul Philippoteaux. So often it is wrongly described as being an actual photograph of the Battle of Gettysburg itself. Historians have scoured tens of thousands of Civil War photos, but have found nary a one that shows an actual battle in progress. Surely, Brady or Gardner or one of the other heavyweight period photographers must have set up his camera squarely in the middle of the action and waited for the perfect moment to take this dramatic "holy grail" photo of Pickett's Charge!!!
 
Haven't had time to keep up with this thread but that's just fine- fakes have been around since Day One of photo history, they'll still be here.

take this dramatic "holy grail" photo of Pickett's Charge!!!


Yes, the photos of paintings are all over the internet as real aren't they? Boy. That would be one intrepid photographer setting up a camera July 3rd, 1863. You just know there are more shots of Gettysburg than we've seen but the battle itself? Ouch.
 
Please, anyone trying to source this ( which is part of the problem, it doesn't get sourced ), there is no Lincoln wedding photo. Mary's photo as a young woman is a portrait, Lincoln's yet another. Someone glued them together and poof- The Lincoln Wedding photograph.

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And another although it seems a painting and photo glued together
fake.jpg
 
This one drives me a little crazy- original is in Miller's. Confederate officers supposedly posing with their wives ( I think intent is they'd be wives ). It's extremely awful- pouty, er, full figured girl in front should be the first clue...next are women middle row, each around 3' tall.

fake officers.jpg
 
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"...Long considered the only known Civil War view of a battle in action, Gardner's photograph actually shows reserve artillery east of Antietam the day after the battle. What was thought to be the smoke of guns covering the fields in the center and right distance is fog or early morning mist. During the Civil War most photographers worked with the collodion-on-glass negatives, which required delicate and laborious procedures even in the studio. When the photographer was ready for action, a sheet of glass was cleaned, coated with collodion, partially dried, dipped carefully into a bath containing nitrate of silver, then exposed in the camera for several seconds and processed in the field darkroom tent--all before the silver collodion mixture had dried. Given the danger of their situation and the technical difficulty of their task, front-line photographers rarely if ever attempted action scenes. Printed from one half of a stereo negative, this small view served as a memorial to the single bloodiest day of the war."


https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/283192
 
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A member kindly brought an image here, at first thinking it was the Grants. I'm not sure we've ever had someone not argue, you know the stream of Lincoln-in-his-coffin images we've had over the years? One's STILL on Ebay although price has been lowered to 10K. They all get argued, good to see someone dedicated to getting it right.

Here's another favorite, also re- ' pinned ' a gazillion times on Pinterest. Poe..... and Lincoln. Ouch. Honest, anyone browsing here, it just isn't.

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This one is awesome - taken inside a museum, fellow with a camera around his neck is sneaking in to their front door behind them. Because they aren't real. Guy with the camera is, though.
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A member kindly brought an image here, at first thinking it was the Grants. I'm not sure we've ever had someone not argue, you know the stream of Lincoln-in-his-coffin images we've had over the years? One's STILL on Ebay although price has been lowered to 10K. They all get argued, good to see someone dedicated to getting it right.

Here's another favorite, also re- ' pinned ' a gazillion times on Pinterest. Poe..... and Lincoln. Ouch. Honest, anyone browsing here, it just isn't.

View attachment 343137

This one is awesome - taken inside a museum, fellow with a camera around his neck is sneaking in to their front door behind them. Because they aren't real. Guy with the camera is, though.
View attachment 343138
Thanks so much -- hilarious and frightening all at the same time! This is how perceptions of history get twisted.
 
" By learning to question what you see in photographs you can become a better history detective ", from the link. They're being kind. We can put History back where it belongs. It's not easy, profitable or popular. For various reasons folks love clinging to dug-in positions but it's worth it or like I said, it's all up for grabs.

Good advice.
I enjoy researching WW2 photos of GI’s in Italy. I receive e-mails and attached photos from families of Vets. Sometimes they have no clue about the date or place of the photo. Other times they have a story passed down that does not match the truth.
If a photo shows a GI sitting in a gondola, then you know it was not taken while on leave during the war but after the surrender. Or it is easy to determine the difference between the Vatican and the church dome in Florence.
But one photo I had to validate was one that was captioned by my Dad. He identified the photo as taken in Rome in July 1945. My first clue that wasnt correct was he was wearing combat fatigues and gear which was not worn after the war ended. Using the fountain in the photo and historical documents, I determined where it taken and when— 7 months earlier.
 
This one drives me a little crazy- original is in Miller's. Confederate officers supposedly posing with their wives ( I think intent is they'd be wives ). It's extremely awful- pouty, er, full figured girl in front should be the first clue...next are women middle row, each around 3' tall.

View attachment 297621
There weren't pouty full figured girls during the CW? 😢

Perhaps accounts for the stern looks of some of the period men:bounce:
 
The "nurses's" headgear is hilarious. How long do you supposed that would have lasted in a hospital. Huh, bet they never would have made the journey, tossed out of a train window along the way, landing on some poor unsuspecting cow.
You are so right, JPK, Dorothea would have had apoplexy!
I saw this image years ago in a book that claimed they were Southern nurses. That's all I remember except being struck by the headgear.
 
This one drives me a little crazy- original is in Miller's. Confederate officers supposedly posing with their wives ( I think intent is they'd be wives ). It's extremely awful- pouty, er, full figured girl in front should be the first clue...next are women middle row, each around 3' tall.

View attachment 297621
Note how unnatural-looking is the arm around the girl in the front's...um...shoulder.
 
Wish I had a digital copy of the family photo my son and his wife did for Christmas. It's a tintype and ignoring the modern clothes and hairstyles it looks like something from the Civil War era. In fact my son with his longish hair and scraggly beard looks like a typical CW soldier. The photographer told them to hold absolutely still so they all have that "dear in the head lights" look like a lot of the older portraits. My point is you don't even need to photoshop old pictures you can just create your own.
 
This one drives me a little crazy- original is in Miller's. Confederate officers supposedly posing with their wives ( I think intent is they'd be wives ). It's extremely awful- pouty, er, full figured girl in front should be the first clue...next are women middle row, each around 3' tall.

View attachment 297621
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/who-are-those-guys.17861/#post-210269 I think the original, sans belles, is in the Alabama State Archives Collection.
 
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