Historical Portrait
Lee Memorial
Archive record
1 photograph : albumen print on mount ; sheet 141 x 98 mm, mount 165 x 108 mm (cabinet card format) | Photograph shows General Robert E. Lee of Confederate States Infantry Regiment in uniform, flanked by the first and second Confederate flags and surrounded by the state seals of the Confederacy.
About this photograph
This cabinet card, produced in 1871, presents a memorial composition of General Robert E. Lee in uniform, flanked by two Confederate flags and surrounded by state seals of the Confederacy. The photograph was created by Campbell & Co. of Richmond, Virginia.
The date places this work six years after the war's end and shortly after Lee's death in October 1870, suggesting it served as a commemorative piece rather than a wartime portrait. Cabinet cards, larger than the cartes de visite common during the conflict, became a popular format in the postwar period.
The staged nature of the image, with its formal arrangement of flags and seals around a central portrait, reflects the memorial photography practices of the era rather than the documentary approach seen in wartime photography, which consisted primarily of portraits, camp scenes, and battlefield aftermath owing to the long exposure times required.
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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