UNKNOWN MAKER
PROPERTY FROM THE JACKIE NAPOLEAN WILSON COLLECTION
UNKNOWN MAKER

A Zouave tribesman

Details
UNKNOWN MAKER
A Zouave tribesman
Sixth-plate daguerreotype. Circa 1850. Thermoplastic case.
Literature
Wilson, Hidden Witness:African-American Images from the Dawn of Photography to the Civil War, pp. 112-113.
Exhibited
Photographs from Detroit Collections: An Exhibition Inaugurating the Albert and Peggy de Salle Gallery of Photographs, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1983;
Hidden Witness: African-Americans in Early Photography, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California, 29 February - 18 June 1995.

Lot Essay

"During the 1830s, Zouave tribesmen in North Africa were left in charge of a colonial garrison by the French. Their administration was so successful that they were incorporated into the French Army and became its most notable colonial soldiers. This man wears a Zouave uniform of the same type worn by other European armies, such as those who fought in the Crimean War and was worn by the Papal Zouaves in defense of the Papal States in 1860... Early in the Civil War, President Lincoln's friend Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth toured the United States with his regiment of Fire Zouaves, creating a sensation wherever they performed their acrobatic feats." (Wilson, p. 112.)

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