Yet Another Jesse James Image

What cracks me up is the $$$ these wannabe gold diggers see, the guerrilla photo sold in 2013 for $7000, the older photo sold for $51000 in 2011 and its even believed to be signed by jesse...........so how is a dubious looking photo with no provenance est at 2 million?.............

the photo reminds me more of Adams family then Jesse...........
You can probably talk them down to $1.85M!
 
Here's another image, purported to be of the boys. That is definitely Frank on the bottom. Is that Jesse above? I don't know. But I think it's the same young man in our original poster's image.
http://www.monticellolive.com/memories-from-the-museum-frank-jesse-james-visited-tillar/

Check this link out, too. The top row of photos are most definitely Frank. Then we get into question mark territory with regard to Jesse. You can see how the very young man of our original post might fit into this group. .....or maybe not.....
http://www.facecomparisons.com/article-322.html
 
There are many, many photos of Frank, because he was somewhat of a celebrity and he was often sought after for newspaper interviews. Jesse, on the other hand, was always on the run and living incognito until he wasn't living any more.
 
Jesse James was a two-bit vicious punk, basically in today's terms just another gang-banger. If his remains might be worth about $7.50 or so for the elements, a photo of him is worth no more than a quarter, and that's to see the clothes.
Tell us how you really feel :D
I am not an expert on gang bangers but I have met a few and almost shot three of them. While I never met Jesse just read about him he doesn't come across has a ********er. Jesse comes across more,as dedicated guerrilla and post Civil War as a socio pathetc criminal. So no not a candidate for sainthood but not a classic ********er or one like those I have met over the years .
Leftyhunter
 
Early in war before prices probably rose - from Diary of John G Morrison

Dec 12th (1861), Thursday. Arose at 6 1/2. Finnegan had the fire going. Hated to get up, I felt so comfortable. Had to, if I did not want to do an extra guard. Expended a dollar to have my likeness taken in Ambrotype to send home, as my dear wife has been asking me to do...
I seem to remember the price for CDV's being 25 cents or thereabouts, though I also recall them being referred to as penny dreadfuls for their supposed poor quality. If so, they probably cost several pennies, and the quarter may have been for the relatively cheap new tintypes, versus the decade-old and proven ambrotypes which were considered to have much better quality and resolution when compared to the other two. Of course, where hard images like ambrotypes and tintypes were concerned the case - of lack of one - contributed proportionally to the cost.
 
The more I studied Jesse the less I liked him. But yeah there were incidents that happened to him and family to make him bitter (deservedly so) but the bottom line is the James/ Younger's robbed for the James / Younger's!
Have you read T.J. Stiles book "Jesse James Last Rebel of the Civil War Vintiage Civil War Library?
It certainly seems that but for the Civil War the James and Younger boys who both came from prosperous upper middle income families most likely would not have chosen crime. However in life "stuff happens ".
Leftyhunter
 
Great share @mofederal! I have never heard what an image in the 1850's and 60's might have cost. I would be curious to find out. Hopefully someone will know and share.
About 50 cents for a tintype. Revenue stamps on the back can date an old photo to Aug 1864-Aug 1866. They also give you an idea of the price of the photo. I don't have the chart in front of me but it was something like one or two cents revenue tax for every 25 cents in cost of picture.
 
Have you read T.J. Stiles book "Jesse James Last Rebel of the Civil War Vintiage Civil War Library?
It certainly seems that but for the Civil War the James and Younger boys who both came from prosperous upper middle income families most likely would not have chosen crime. However in life "stuff happens ".
Leftyhunter

Yes I have, very well written. Another good one is "Shot All To Hell" by Mark Lee Gardner. About the Northfield, MN disaster .
 
Jesse James was a two-bit vicious punk, basically in today's terms just another gang-banger. If his remains might be worth about $7.50 or so for the elements, a photo of him is worth no more than a quarter, and that's to see the clothes.
Really, I always had Jessie down as an embittered patriot, yep, he wasn’t a particularly pleasant character but given what he’d been through who would be! There’s a reason why ford shot Jessie in the back of the head! Cowardice, Jessie was just very good at what he did.
 
Jesse was a VERY impressionable young boy of about 15 or 16 when he came under the influence of Bill Anderson. Then he came under the influence of Archie Clements. Jesse's post-war fame came about due to his own very considerable cleverness, plus the complicit help from "Major" John Newman Edwards. Now....Edwards was a very capable Confederate cavalry officer and adjutant to General J.O. Shelby. But he was a die-hard, seemingly unapologetic rebel. He saw Jesse supposedly continuing the fight, and he jumped willingly into Jesse's media spin. In fact, he CREATED most of Jesse's media spin, and he helped Jesse propagate anything that Jesse didn't create himself.

As far as I am concerned, I think Frank is by far the more interesting of the James brothers. That's because I never swallowed any of Major Edwards's spin. Major Edwards was a fine adjutant with a fine intelligence network, but he was a newspaper editor with a personal agenda, and there can be no doubt about that.
 
The more I studied Jesse the less I liked him. But yeah there were incidents that happened to him and family to make him bitter (deservedly so) but the bottom line is the James/ Younger's robbed for the James / Younger's!
Very wise insights, and I am saying that as a native Missourian!

Jesse was no prize. Frank came in and surrendered. Cole served his time in prison. (a VERY long time!) These guys were all very individual. They cannot be painted with a single stroke of a broad brush.
 
Here's what Jesse James biographer T. J. Stiles has to say:

TJStiles Jesse James Photo-1.jpg
 
Frank seems to have been the one who shot the teller at Northfield, but that could just be a rumor the gang started.
Or it could have been a masked man who wanted to announce things in a way that would pin the blame on someone else--namely FRANK. Cole Younger says Jesse and Frank never got caught after Northfield because they weren't along in the first place. Do you want to believe him? I don't know how to advise on that, but I can tell you that Cole did his time. He did 25 years in the Minnesota prison at Stillwater. He and Frank were best friends. Cole said he never could have engaged in any sort of enterprise with Jesse because Cole didn't like Jesse. So, would an ex-con who was Frank's best friend (but who didn't like Jesse) be honest about this in his memoir?

No one alive today knows the answer to that question. What's your guess?
 
Very wise insights, and I am saying that as a native Missourian!

Jesse was no prize. Frank came in and surrendered. Cole served his time in prison. (a VERY long time!) These guys were all very individual. They cannot be painted with a single stroke of a broad brush.
My favorite quote of Frank is of the guerrillas "they made their monuments while they were living"
 
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