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New York State Delegates. Signed Book, Photographic Album of the Constitutional Convention of the State of New York (Albany: Churchill & Denison, Photographers, 1867). ? p.
Image Available Upon Request Inventory# 21302 $1,950
The album comprises approximately 176 original CDV-sized albumen photos of the delegates to the 1867 New York State Constitutional Convention, affixed four to a decoratively printed single-sided page. All but three of the subjects have signed in ink beneath their respective photos, several including the city or other identifying information. In addition to the delegates (whose numbers include such prominent figures as Horace Greeley and Samuel J. Tilden), several officers and reporters are also included. The president of the convention, William Wheeler, is featured in a large-format frontispiece photo, which has been similarly signed by him.
Historical Background:
The carte de visite (CDV) photo albums became popular in the 1850s and reached their heyday in the 1860s and 1870s. Using an albumen process, photographers mass-produced copies of portraits, studio shots, and celebrity photos. Special albums with decorative pages were manufactured to fit the 2 1/2" x 4" cards.
The delegates to the New York Constitutional Convention held in 1867-1868 in Albany numbered among them presidential and vice-presidential candidates Samuel Tilden, William Wheeler, Horace Greeley, and George Law; U.S. senators Ira Harris, Francis Kernan, Frank Hiscock, Elbridge Lapham, William M. Evarts; and influential politicians including Erastus Corning of Albany and Justice George Comstock. Although New York has had five constitutions adopted (1777, 1821, 1846, 1894, and 1938), the one issuing from this convention was not approved by the citizens; only one amendment relating to reorganization of the court system was ratified in 1869.
William Almon Wheeler (1819-1887) was a New York lawyer and member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1861 to 1863. He presided over the New York Constitutional Convention of 1867–1868 and served again in Congress for four consecutive terms (1869–1877). He was elected vice president under Rutherford B. Hayes in the disputed election of 1876, when corruption and political engineering denied Samuel Tilden an electoral vote victory although he had a majority of the popular vote.
Condition: The leather covers are worn and, though detached from the text block, are well within the means of restoration. The contents have been beautifully preserved (aided by a protective guard sheet for each page).
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