[Eleanor C. Ransom, Civil War nurse, three-quarter length portrait facing left]

Archive record

1 photograph : matte collodion print on mount ; mount 17 x 11 cm (cabinet card format) | Photograph shows a portrait of Eleanor C. Ransom, nurse during the Civil War. In 1864, she was assigned to work on the government transport ship, North America, to nurse Union soldiers on their way back to the north. On December 22, 1864, the ship sank during a storm off the Florida coast. Of the 203 Union enlisted soldiers on the ship, 194 died during the sinking. Ransom herself was rescued on a lifeboat.

About this photograph

Eleanor C. Ransom served as a nurse during the Civil War. In 1864 she was assigned to the government transport ship North America, caring for Union soldiers being moved northward.

On December 22, 1864, the ship sank in a storm off the Florida coast. Of the 203 Union enlisted men aboard, 194 died. Ransom survived, rescued on a lifeboat.

This cabinet card portrait was made in 1899 by Geo. Steckel, more than three decades after the war's end. By then photography had long been established. During the war itself, soldiers commonly sat for portraits before deploying, and photographers documented camps and battlefields, though exposure times made action shots impossible. Ransom's portrait belongs to a later moment, when survivors looked back on service that had shaped their lives.

Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.

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