Roscoe Conkling

Behind the Times

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Second Lieutenant Hiram Banks of the 16th Massachusetts Infantry was photographed c. 1861. He was one of three brothers who fought for the Union during the Civil War. A man of honor and integrity who was devoted to duty, he wrote in a letter to a friend, "As long as my life is spared, and this war should continue, I will be found fighting for the cause." He was killed in action at the Second Battle of Bull Run near Manassas, Virginia, on August 29, 1862, at age 29. He is remembered for his courage, and his sacrifice.

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Mexican-born Hollywood actor Gilbert Roland, whose birth name was Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso, is pictured below in a scene still from the 1928 film 'A Woman Disputed', about a love triangle set in Austria on the eve of World War I. Made during the transition from silent to sound motion pictures, it featured a musical score and sound effects using synchronized sound on recorded discs, with silent, subtitled dialogue.

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A Union Army officer of the 114th Pennsylvania Infantry studies his playing cards while waiting for orders during the siege of Petersburg, Virginia in the summer of 1864.

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Portrait of a gentleman wearing a swimsuit, photographed on the beach at La Baule, Brittany in 1902.

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Buffalo Bill Cody (left), Ned Buntline (center), and Texas Jack Omohundro (right) are featured in this publicity photo for Buntline's stage play 'The Scouts of the Prairie', which opened in Chicago in December, 1872. A sensationalized depiction of Cody's and Omohundro's adventures as army scouts, it was panned by critics, but audiences loved it. The play was staged in theaters around the United States, premiering on Broadway in March, 1873. It was the forerunner of Cody's later Wild West show.

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Texas Jack Omohundro, considered by some to be the first American cowboy celebrity, was a US Army scout, hunting guide, stage actor and Broadway star, hero of dime novels, and close friend of Buffalo Bill. He sat for this portrait in Chicago c. 1870.

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Tintype of Union Army cavalryman James Campbell, made in Brooklyn, New York, in 1861.

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Naval officers pose deckside for this photograph made c. 1910.

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Portrait of a young man wearing a checkered suit and a bowler hat made by the Whittaker studio of Elwood, Indiana c. 1890.

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Portrait of French sculptor and painter Jean-Baptiste Auguste Clésinger, a daguerreotype made by Gustave Le Gray in his Paris studio in 1848.

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John Thompson of the US Life-Saving Service of Fire Island, Long Island, New York, was photographed c. 1880. The LSS would eventually merge with the US Coast Guard to become the Surfmen, an elite, specialized group with years of training, dedicated to maritime search and rescue in extreme conditions.

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Spectators at the Brighton Sports Ground in Vancouver, British Columbia, wait for the start of a football match in a photograph dated Saturday, May 3, 1890.

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Self-portrait by Swedish photographer Frans Gustaf Klemming, made at his studio in Stockholm c. 1891. Known for his portrait and landscape photography, he experimented with mood-altering techniques such as retouching and overpainting, which he used to manipulate and enhance sunset, moonlight, and snow landscapes.

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Cowboy artist Jo Mora was photographed at Lorenzo Hubbell's trading post in Ganado, Arizona in 1905.

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William Warner Fiske was in business with his older brother Orin manufacturing rope and twine when he sat for this portrait in Dedham, Massachusetts, c. 1850.

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Quarter-plate daguerreotype of a French military cadet holding a sword, c. 1850.

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Portrait of Jonathan Bell Hammond made at Imperial Studios of San Francisco in 1885.