(ULKE HENRY) [Ulke Julius] Carte de visite group portrait of

Sale 2324 - Lot 335

Price Realized: $ 292

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Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400

(ULKE, HENRY.) [Ulke, Julius?] Carte-de-visite group portrait of the Megatherium Club. Albumen photograph, 3 1/2 x 2 1/4 inches, on plain mount; captioned in manuscript on mount recto and verso. [Washington, 1867?]

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This well-known image depicts the group of young scientists known as the Megatherium Club. During the early days of the Smithsonian Institution, they served as volunteer field agents and sometimes lived in the building. The captioning on this card, likely provided by Henry Ulke's son Titus, differs substantially from the Smithsonian's. They agree that the two standing men are Robert Kennicott and Henry Ulke, and that the man seated on the left is William Stimson, but the Smithsonian's example states that the man seated on right is Henry Bryant, while the present example has him as General John Aaron Rawlins. The present example assigns an 1867 date to the image, probably too late for the uniformed man to be Bryant (who resigned as a military physician in 1863) or Rawlins (then a general). Most notably, the present example states that the photographer was "I believe Julius Ulke," brother of Henry and a logical possibility. with--a carte-de-visite portrait of the mysterious man in the lower right, this one with a Henry Ulke backstamp dated 1867, captioned in a later hand "General John Aaron Rawlins."