Mar 20, 2025 - Sale 2697

Sale 2697 - Lot 284

Price Realized: $ 7,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
(MILITARY--CIVIL WAR.) P.S. Duval, lithographer. United States Soldiers at Camp "William Penn." Hand-colored lithograph, 14 x 17 inches; worn with repaired closed tears, professionally conserved. Philadelphia: Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments, [1864]
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Additional Details

Camp William Penn was founded in July 1863 to help meet the call for African-American soldiers. Located in Cheltenham just north of Philadelphia, it trained eleven regiments of United States Colored Troops recruited from all over the country. This lithograph was created by a recruiting agency, and paints a flattering picture of military life.

This lithograph was published with at least three caption variants. The present copy has five lines from the "Battle Cry of Freedom" below the title, starting "We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true and brave." Another variant has the same title, with a two-line subcaption beginning "Rally Round the Flag, boys!"; a third is titled "Come and Join Us Brothers."

The source image was a photograph taken with Captain George E. Heath, second in command at Camp Penn from September 1863 to May 1864. It was shot in a studio; the flag, scenery, and drummer boy were all added by the lithographer. The photo was probably taken in the early months of 1864 (the heavy overcoats suggest a winter date), and the lithograph probably followed soon after. See Kurt Luther, "Revealed: The Identity of an Officer in an Iconic Group Portrait," in Military Images, Autumn 2015.