Gettysburg Post, no. 191, G.A.R., Memorial Day, 1895

Archive record

1 photograph : gelatin silver print ; sheet 18 x 24 cm, mount 27 x 35 cm. | Photograph shows group portrait of Union veterans of G.A.R. Gettysburg Post no. 191 of Boston.

About this photograph

This photograph, taken by the Boston firm Smith & Miller, shows members of Gettysburg Post no. 191 of the Grand Army of the Republic gathered on Memorial Day 1895.

The Grand Army of the Republic was the fraternal organisation of Union veterans of the Civil War, founded in 1866. Its local posts ran reunions and memorial observances for decades after the war.

By 1895, thirty years had passed since Appomattox. The men in this group portrait would have been in their fifties or older, most having enlisted as young men. The post took its name from the Pennsylvania battle, though the record does not indicate whether its members had fought there.

Memorial Day had become the Grand Army's central annual observance, a day for decorating graves and gathering in remembrance. The location and circumstances of this particular gathering are not stated.

Smith & Miller operated as photographers in Boston, producing the gelatin silver print that survives in the Library of Congress collection. The sheet measures eighteen by twenty-four centimetres, mounted on a support of twenty-seven by thirty-five centimetres.

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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