Between the Covers

Unbound. Original images by photographer Mathew Brady of the Secretary of the Interior and the Chiefs of Bureaus. Nine original albumen portraits of the members of the 1878 Interior Bureau and one photograph of the Bureau's headquarters building in Washington, DC. All are oval shaped, measuring about 4" x 5" with the exceptions of the portrait of the Secretary, which is 6" x 8", and that of the building, 7¼" x 5". All of the photographs are tipped onto a large card sheet measuring 20½" x 27½". Hand-lettered text. The bottom of the headquarters photo is hand-lettered "Brady – New York & Washington, D.C." All nine officials have Signed below their images, including the Secretary of the Interior (Carl Schurz). Most of the other officials depicted had served as military officers in the Civil War (often as Generals). They are the Chief Clerk (George M. Lockwood), the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (Ezra A. Hayt), the Assistant Secretary (Alonzo Bell), the Commissioner of Patents (Ellis Spear), the Commissioner of the General Land Office (James A. Williamson), the Commissioner of Education (John Eaton), the Assistant Attorney General (E.M. Marble) and the Commissioner of Pensions (J.A. Bentley). Some light soiling and damp staining on cardstock mount but the photographs appear unaffected. According to the Department of the Interior website, the department was created in 1849 and had "a wide range of responsibilities entrusted to it: the construction of the national capital's water system, the colonization of freed slaves in Haiti, exploration of western wilderness, oversight of the District of Columbia jail, regulation of territorial governments, management of hospitals and universities, management of public parks, and the basic responsibilities for Indians, public lands, patents, and pensions. In one way or another all of these had to do with the internal development of the Nation or the welfare of its people." Presumably unique.

Item #97532