Six people in Lewistown, PA
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A couple of things cross my mind when I look at this little CDV. One is the very fact that carte de visite (CDV) is French for visiting card, the name of this type of photo stemming from the calling cards used in those days for social visits. I know that the photographic kind weren’t used in the same way, but it amuses me to think of this group of six people all showing up at somebody’s house together and using this photo as their collective calling card. The other thing that crosses my mind is the fact that this is considered a Civil War-era image because it has a 3-cent revenue stamp on the back. The stamps were required from September 1, 1864 to August 1, 1866, which means this photo was taken either in the last year of the war, or the year after it ended. I just finished reading a novel that took place partly during the Civil War, and the young man at the center of it had to justify not volunteering to enlist, despite the social pressure, especially when two of his brothers did enlist. With that fresh in my mind, I wonder about what pressures these young men faced at that time, and whether any of them did end up serving. I’m fascinated by the way a single contextual clue can open up avenues of interest and speculation in an otherwise mundane (though perfectly attractive) portrait. The photographer, by the way, is C. C. Burkholder of Lewistown, Pennsylvania. I believe that’s Charles Correll Burkholder (1827-1884). A tiny bit of information, including pictures of him, can be found here.
Pics of Then 
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