Featured CDV Photo of Gentleman W/ Large Medal around his neck

Hello,

Another photo I snagged while on Easter Break. (Looked through about 1,000 photos)

This gentleman has a large "award" around his neck.

The medal looks to have the back of Lincoln's head on it but I could be wrong.

It is signed on the back Your Old Humble Admirer - Jr? Though I'm not sure as it looks just like a first name.


Photo is from New York.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you again in advance!

 

Rather exotic looking guy - the extra medals on his lapel, short jacket and baggy pants, along with the hair (both facial and on his head) - make me think European. I think that squiggle under the greeting? Just a scribbled signature?

 

If that medal actually depicts Abraham Lincoln (and we only have the hair to go on) then the most likely, given that the head is left-facing, is the one shown in this auction. http://www.cowanauctions.com/auctions/item.aspx?id=73731

Just about everything else I found for Lincoln medals shows him either facing forward or to the right. Notice that this was a French item.

 

I'd say it's not Lincoln. Doesn't look right. What about the Maltese cross? Can that be ID'd?

 

C. D. (Charles DeForest) Fredricks was one of the better known photographers in 19th-century New York City. I imagine this fellow was somebody well known.

I'm wondering about what he is wearing on his lapel, with all of the chains.

 

>Rather exotic looking guy - the extra medals on his lapel, short jacket and baggy pants, along with the hair (both facial and on his head) - make me think European. <

I agree on exotic. C.D. Fredricks did quite a lot of work in South America including having an office in Havana. I would not be surprise to find that this fine fellow was of Cuba. As to the medal around his neck, I can't make it out enough to say whether Lincolnish or not. It appears to be a head facing to our left. The neck has no collar or tie. For the very little I can see I suppose it could be Bolivar, Alexander the Great, or Lincoln.

The only lapel stuff and such I can ID is a Maltese Cross. These were common to a good dozen fraternal orders from Masonic to Knights of Columbus. Nothing about it ID's it to Masonic. Spain used the Maltese Cross in their military medical corp as well as several of their Catholic honorary orders and in their flags and coats-of-arms. I doubt there is a country that doesn't use the Maltese Cross in one form or another.

http://historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=237

--- Susan

 

He does look "Exotic". I just feel like with such a large metal, he must be someone of importance. I'm gonna keep looking through online CDV examples. He looks like a European John Wilkes Booth sorta lol

 

Got him! Louis Moreau Gottschalk! New Orleans composer, son of a London Jewish father and Creole mother. Died in Brazil 1869. That explains the European style clothing - New Orleans was more connected to France, Spain and Mexico than it was to the rest of the US when he was born.

http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/acc/gottschalk.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Moreau_Gottschalk

 

Wow! Awesome find!

 

I ran a search for the medal and his face popped up in a sea of unrelated images. Still no clue of what's on the medal.

 

Wow!
Thank you so much! Amazing find!

 

From Louis Moreau Gottschalk, by S. Frederick Starr, p.10:



His papers are apparently at the New York Public LIbrary.

This from a review of the collection at the NYPL, A Gottschalk Collection Surveyed, by Richard Jackson, p.367:

"As something of a climax to his stay [in San Francisco], a little more than two weeks
before his clandestine departure, a group of forty prominent members
of the community . . . presented Gottschalk with a large gold medal
encrusted with diamonds and rubies. [Described as] 'nine inches in circumference,'
containing 'six plates of auriferous quartz of different
colours,' and bearing the initials 'L.M.G.' in diamonds surrounded by
a laurel wreath in diamonds and rubies. The verso of the medal contained
the words 'To Gottschalk: a token from his California friends.
25 Aug. 1865.'"

thompsonian.info/Gottschalk-More-Notes-of-a-Pianist.pdf

 

Great find, evely..! I also could not pin down that exactly medal. I did find that he received 2 Spanish knighthoods; Order of Isabella and the Order of Charles III. Both of these orders use the Maltese Cross in their medals. After reading his extensive history, I doubt very much the medal is of Lincoln. He spent most of his life living outside the US in Europe and quite a lot of time in Cuba and South America. Because of a scandal involving a student in San Francisco in 1865, he left the country and never returned. He was honored around the world for his music - compositions and piano playing. Victor Hugo thought he was the best pianist in the world at that time. Chopin went out of his way to attend Gottschalk's perfomances. He died in Brazil. A US stamp was made of him in 1997.

http://www.usstampgallery.com/view.php?id=d2bd2b998877dc1e18230482cbdd91504b509eb7

--- Susan

 

Great find to khl889 for IDing the medal!

--- Susan

 

I found this link! http://www.gottschalk.fr/Galerie_eng.html Looks like this photo is C.1861 (in the sites opinion)


Thank you all so much for the help! I am amazed at all of your research skills! That was so quick! Thank you!

 

The writing on the back seems to be an inscription:

Tom W humble nominar. (translates "to nominate")
Then the signature.

 

This is a great example of collaboration in research -- It's great that he and his medal were identified!

Reading khl's post, I think the medal sounds more like the one he received in New Orleans in 1853 rather than the one he got in California in 1865. That would be even more true if the photo of him wearing it dates from 1861, as one of the links above states.

I know that he did get other medals, though. Maybe some of those are the ones on his lapel?

 

Wow, great work on this thread - what a fantastic find!

 

Can I buy this picture from you?