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Summary:
Wet-plate glass negative of Belle Boyd. At the age of seventeen, Boyd began assisting the Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley, operating from her father’s hotel in Front Royal, Virginia. During the spring 1862 Valley Campaign she became a courier and provided valuable information to Generals Turner Ashby and
Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson. Belle Boyd. Photographic Negative. Brady’s Washington, D.C. Gallery, circa mid 1860s. 2½” x 3¾”, framed, 11” x 12”. (Image of print taken from the negative) Inventory# 21501 $6,000 Historical Background:
A bold and daring young woman, Belle at times galloped headlong into the dark with cipher messages, and crept into rooms to eavesdrop on Union Army conferences. General Jackson made her a captain and honorary aide-de-camp. After being betrayed by her lover, she was arrested on July 29, 1862, and spent a month in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. Exchanged a month later, she was in exile with relatives for a time but was again arrested in June 1863 while on a visit to her birthplace, Martinsburg, now West Virginia. On December 1, 1863, she was released, suffering from typhoid, and went to Europe to regain her health. While in England, Belle had a stage career and published Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison. She died while touring the western United States. Unlike the daguerreotype, which produced a one-of-akind positive image, the wet-plate was the first widely used photographic process which allowed for unlimited prints from a single negative. The process was popular during the mid and late 19th century. To see an image of the negative itself, please email us at
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