Description: Ambrotype portrait of a young girl with a large dog, ca. 1860, from the Stone-Brown Family Collection. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07470
Subjects: Dogs; Pets; Children's clothing; Portrait photography
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Engraved portrait of Charles F. Brush, an electrical engineer from Cleveland and developer of the Brush arc lamp (1879), ca. 1880. Below picture: Western Biogl Pub. Co. Signature at bottom: C.F. Brush View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03890
Subjects: Brush, Charles Francis, 1849-1929; Inventors--Ohio; Portrait photography
 

Description: This is a group portrait of boys and girls and a dog, possibly a school class. This photograph was taken by traveling photographer Albert J. Ewing, ca. 1896-1912. Like most of Ewing's work, it was likely taken in southeastern Ohio or central West Virginia. Born in 1870 in Washington County, Ohio, near Marietta, Ewing most likely began his photography career in the 1890s. The 1910 US Census and a 1912-1913 directory list him as a photographer. A negative signed “Ewing Brothers” and a picture with his younger brother, Frank, indicate that Frank may have joined the business. After 1916, directories list Albert as a salesman. He died in 1934. The Ewing Collection consists of 5,055 glass plate negatives, each individually housed and numbered. Additionally, the collection includes approximately 450 modern contact prints made from the glass plate negatives. Subjects include infants and young children, elderly people, families, school and religious groups, animals and rural scenes. In 1982, the Ohio Historical Society received the collection, still housed in the original dry plate negative boxes purchased by Albert J. Ewing. A selection of the original glass plate negatives were exhibited for the first time in 2013 at the Ohio Historical Center. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06306
Subjects: Ewing, Albert J. (1870-1934); Portrait photography--United States—History; Dogs; Cultural Ohio--Education; Clothing and dress; Children; School photography
Places: Ohio; West Virginia
 

Description: This is a group portrait of men who were part of the "exploration corps and topological survey" at the Fort Ancient site, ca. 1900-1908. The Fort Ancient Earthworks are a series of earthen embankments that extend for more than three and one half miles around a high bluff along the Little Miami River in southwestern Ohio. Although it is called a "fort," it probably never served as a defensive work. Ditches are located inside the walls rather than outside as might be expected in a fortification. There are more than 60 gateways in the walls, making it difficult to defend the site against enemies. The Hopewell culture (100 B.C. to 500 A. D.) of prehistoric American Indian people constructed the earthworks. Later native residents built a village and a cemetery within the walls of the already ancient South Fort. Archaeologists mistakenly assumed that these villagers had built the earthen walls. It was called the Fort Ancient culture (1000 A.D. to 1650 A.D.) after the name of the site. This mistake has caused confusion for later students of Ohio archaeology. Recent excavations at Fort Ancient have discovered the remains of Hopewell culture houses and ceremonial features both inside and outside of the enclosure walls. It is not known whether the houses located inside the enclosure were occupied before or after the enclosure was built. It also has yet to be determined whether the houses were the dwellings of more or less full time residents, or the temporary shelters of visitors. The Fort Ancient Earthworks is an Ohio Historical Society site open to visitation. It is located seven miles southeast of Lebanon, in Warren County, Ohio. In addition to the earthworks, the site features a museum with interpretive exhibits about Ohio's ancient past. The Fort Ancient Earthworks site also is a National Historic Landmark. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03905
Subjects: Fort Ancient (Ohio); Fort Ancient Culture (A.D. 1000–1650); Earthworks (Archaeology); Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1-400) (A.D. 1–400); State parks & reserves; Mounds--Ohio--Warren County; Portrait photography
Places: Warren County (Ohio)
 

Description: Carte de visite portrait of Civil War officer Colonel Charles G. Harker. A notation on the back of the card states that he was "Killed at Kennesaw Mt June 27 / 64." Harker was born in New Jersey in 1825. He graduated with distinction from the United States Military Academy in 1858, and served on the western frontier until the beginning of the Civil War when he was ordered to Ohio. He accepted the position of Colonel of the 65th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was promoted to Captain in the regular Army. He distinguished himself at the battles of Pittsburgh Landing, the Siege of Corinth, Stone River, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge and Resaca. After the Battle of Chickamauga he was promoted to Brigadier-General. Harker was mortally wounded at the battle of Kennesaw Mountain on June 27, 1864. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SC2948_Harker
Subjects: Ohio--History--Civil War, 1861-1865; Military officers; Generals--United States; Portrait photography
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Carte de visite portrait of Colonel Henry S. Commager of the 184th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and a captain in Company A of the 67th O.V.I. The photograph was taken during his military service. Commager (ca. 1817-1867) enlisted as a private at age 44 in Company A of the 14th Ohio Infantry Regiment on April 22, 1861. He steadily rose through the ranks, re-enlisting in Company A, Ohio 67th Infantry Regiment, on October 8, 1861, and continuing his advancement. He was promoted to full colonel on February 22, 1865, mustering out and enlisting in Company S, Ohio 184th Infantry Regiment, then was promoted to brigadier general on February 27. He mustered out of service on September 20, 1865, at Nashville, Tennessee. He died on August 14, 1867, and is buried in Galveston, Texas. Commager is the grandfather of his namesake Henry Steele Commager, born in 1902, a noted American historian. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV13_B01_22
Subjects: Ohio--History--Civil War, 1861-1865; Military officers; Generals--United States; Portrait photography
Places: Ohio
 

Description: This is a portrait of a postmortem child. Postmortem photographs, sometimes called memorial portraiture or memento mori, were used as a way to remember the deceased and peaked in popularity around the end of the 19th century. This photograph was taken by traveling photographer Albert J. Ewing, ca. 1896-1912. Like most of Ewing's work, it was likely taken in southeastern Ohio or central West Virginia. Born in 1870 in Washington County, Ohio, near Marietta, Ewing most likely began his photography career in the 1890s. The 1910 US Census and a 1912-1913 directory list him as a photographer. A negative signed “Ewing Brothers” and a picture with his younger brother, Frank, indicate that Frank may have joined the business. After 1916, directories list Albert as a salesman. He died in 1934. The Ewing Collection consists of 5,055 glass plate negatives, each individually housed and numbered. Additionally, the collection includes approximately 450 modern contact prints made from the glass plate negatives. Subjects include infants and young children, elderly people, families, school and religious groups, animals and rural scenes. In 1982, the Ohio Historical Society received the collection, still housed in the original dry plate negative boxes purchased by Albert J. Ewing. A selection of the original glass plate negatives were exhibited for the first time in 2013 at the Ohio Historical Center. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06340
Subjects: Ewing, Albert J. (1870-1934); Children; Portrait photography--United States--History; Photography of the dead; Postmortem photography
Places: Ohio; West Virginia
 

Description: Carte de visite portrait of Major Frank Y. Commagere , 6th U.S. Cavalry. The photograph was taken by Carpenter and Mullen in Lexington, Kentucky, early in the Civil War and collected as part of the Howard Rossen Collection. Born in Maumee, Ohio, Commagere (1844-1892) served as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1861, then joined the 67th New York Volunteers as a second lieutenant from 1862-1863 before being dismissed. He later served as a major in the 6th U.S. Colored Cavalry from January 1865 until he mustered out in April 1866. Following the end of the Civil War, he was appointed first lieutenant in the 7th U.S. Cavalry in 1866, serving under Lieutenant Colonel Custer, until his resignation in 1868. He died in 1892 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV13_B01_20
Subjects: Ohio--History--Civil War, 1861-1865; Military officers; Military uniforms; Portrait photography
Places: Maumee (Ohio); Lucas County (Ohio)
 

Description: This is a tintype portrait of a man wearing a suit and resting his right hand on a pillar with a vase of flowers, standing in front of a hanging backdrop. The man pictured is possibly Major Martin R. Delany, an American Civil War soldier who recruited African Americans for the draft in Ohio, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: NAM_SC24_TintypeImageofWhatispossiblyMartinDelany
Subjects: African American soldiers; Civil War 1861-1865; Military Ohio; Portrait photography
 

Description: Group portrait of Zoar Hotel staff, ca. 1900. They are standing behind the old Hotel built in 1834. The hotel was operated by the Society of Separatists of Zoar to serve visitors and earn additional income for the Society. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL00840
Subjects: Zoar (Tuscarawas County, Ohio); Portrait photography; Hotels; Small towns
Places: Zoar (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: An older man wearing a hat and sunglasses leans against a pole outside of the Worthington Inn, along North High Street in the Worthington suburb of Columbus, Ohio. Seated outside the building are a group of older women on benches. The High Street Photograph Collection is comprised of over 400 photographs of High Street in Columbus, Ohio, taken in the early 1970s. These photographs were taken primarily at street level and document people and the built environment from the Pontifical College Josephinum on North High Street in Worthington through Clintonville, the University District and Short North, Downtown and South Columbus. The photographs were used in a television photo documentary that aired on WOSU called "High Street." Photographers that were involved in this project were Alfred Clarke, Carol Hibbs Kight, Darrell Muething, Clayton K. Lowe, and Julius Foris, Jr. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AV254_B14F373_01
Subjects: Columbus (Ohio)--History--20th century; Street photography; Historic buildings; Portrait photography;
Places: Worthington (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Photomechanical reproduction of a portrait depicting Dr. Charles Volney Dyer (1808-1878), who was a friend of fugitive slaves in Chicago. The image was collected by Ohio State University professor Wilbur H. Siebert (1866-1961). Siebert began researching the Underground Railroad as a way to interest his students in history. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03001
Subjects: Underground Railroad--Illinois; Ohio History--Slavery, Anti-Slavery and Civil Rights; Portrait photography
Places: Cook County (Illinois)