{"id":2179,"date":"2012-11-14T17:35:21","date_gmt":"2012-11-14T17:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=2179"},"modified":"2021-05-26T12:54:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T16:54:41","slug":"dating-old-family-photographs-with-civil-war-revenue-stamps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/dating-old-family-photographs-with-civil-war-revenue-stamps.html","title":{"rendered":"Dating Old Family Photographs with Civil War Revenue Stamps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Introduction<\/em><\/strong><em>: In this article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak shows how to determine the date of undated, Civil War-era family photographs using revenue stamps affixed to the back of the picture. Mary is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Do you have Civil War-era photographs of your ancestors that are undated? As this genealogy article explains, tax stamp legislation passed by the Union in 1864 might provide a valuable clue to help you finally assign a date to those old family photos, allowing for deeper Civil War family history research.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2180\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2180\" style=\"width: 592px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-tax-stamp-act.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2180\" title=\"new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-tax-stamp-act\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-tax-stamp-act.png\" alt=\"Stamp Duties, New York Herald-Tribune newspaper article 13 April 1865\" width=\"592\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-tax-stamp-act.png 592w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-tax-stamp-act-300x161.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-tax-stamp-act-500x269.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 592px) 100vw, 592px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2180\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New York Herald-Tribune (New York, New York), 13 April 1865, page 6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In order to fund the rising costs of the Civil War, the federal government passed an act on 30 June 1864 requiring that tax stamps be affixed to various goods, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Proprietary Medicines and Preparations<\/li>\n<li>Perfumery and Cosmetics<\/li>\n<li>Friction Matches<\/li>\n<li>Cigar Lights and Wax Tapers<\/li>\n<li>Photographs, Ambrotypes and Daguerreotypes<\/li>\n<li>Playing Cards<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Although this legislation achieved the intended goal of raising revenue, it was an extremely unpopular tax\u2014especially for those desiring photographs of family members soon to be separated by war.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2181\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2181\" style=\"width: 582px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-stamp-fees-photographs.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2181\" title=\"new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-stamp-fees-photographs\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-stamp-fees-photographs.png\" alt=\"explanation of stamp fees for photographs, New York Herald-Tribune newspaper article, 13 April 1865\" width=\"582\" height=\"192\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-stamp-fees-photographs.png 582w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-stamp-fees-photographs-300x98.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-stamp-fees-photographs-500x164.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 582px) 100vw, 582px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2181\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New York Herald-Tribune (New York, New York), 13 April 1865, page 6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Fees were assessed upon the selling price of photographs, ambrotypes and daguerreotypes, with different-colored stamps for the various fees.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2\u00a2 stamps were blue or orange and assessed on images 25 cents or less<\/li>\n<li>3\u00a2 stamps were green and assessed on images between 26 and 50 cents<\/li>\n<li>5\u00a2 stamps were red and assessed on images 51 cents to one dollar<\/li>\n<li>For images exceeding one dollar, in addition to the 5\u00a2 stamp an extra 5 cents was assessed \u201cfor every additional dollar or fractional part thereof\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As with most laws, there were exceptions and specifications that had to be followed.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2182\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2182\" style=\"width: 581px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-stamp-act-photographs-exceptions.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2182\" title=\"new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-stamp-act-photographs-exceptions\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-stamp-act-photographs-exceptions.png\" alt=\"exceptions to the stamp tax on photographs, New York Herald-Tribune newspaper article 13 April 1865\" width=\"581\" height=\"351\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-stamp-act-photographs-exceptions.png 581w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-stamp-act-photographs-exceptions-300x181.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/new-york-herald-tribune-newspaper-0413-1865-stamp-act-photographs-exceptions-496x300.png 496w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 581px) 100vw, 581px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2182\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New York Herald-Tribune (New York, New York), 13 April 1865, page 6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cPhotographs and other sun pictures, which are copies of engravings or works of art, or which are used for the illustration of books, or which are so small that stamps cannot be affixed, are exempt from stamp duty. In lieu thereof, they are subject to duty of 5 per cent ad valorem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe price of a photograph by which the stamp duty is determined is held to be the price which is received for such photograph, including the case or frame, as well as any labor which may have been expended upon the picture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImported articles, when sold in the original and unbroken package in which they were imported, are not subject to stamp duty, but they become so as soon as the packages are opened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The process was for a photographer to affix a stamp to the back of an image, and cancel it by adding initials and a date.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2183\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2183\" style=\"width: 570px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/photo-1114-2012-carte-de-visite.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2183\" title=\"photo-1114-2012-carte-de-visite\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/photo-1114-2012-carte-de-visite.png\" alt=\"Civil War-era photograph with a revenue stamp affixed to the back\" width=\"570\" height=\"482\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/photo-1114-2012-carte-de-visite.png 570w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/photo-1114-2012-carte-de-visite-300x253.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/photo-1114-2012-carte-de-visite-354x300.png 354w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2183\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Civil War-era photograph with a revenue stamp affixed to the back<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the old photograph example above of a Carte de Visite (CDV), which shows the back and front of the image side-by-side, the picture was taken at Delong\u2019s Gallery on Locust street in Fairbury, Illinois. The 5 cent stamp indicates that the photographer charged from 51 cents to $1 for his services.<\/p>\n<p>Photographers often designed their own system of stamp cancellation. The hand-written date appears to be 11\/11, but more likely was 11\/4 (Nov. 1864), with the information under the numbers indicating either his initials or an internal reference. It was not 1861, as revenue stamps are only found on images 1864-1866, with the final repeal of the Stamp Act on Aug. 1, 1866.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction: In this article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak shows how to determine the date of undated, Civil War-era family photographs using revenue stamps affixed to the back of the picture. Mary is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. Do you have Civil War-era photographs of your ancestors that are undated? As this genealogy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[2671,5,5290,422,2672,2673,1129,1658,2573,2154,2233,5318,2191,574,1097,2598,2579,2597,4954,5430,2670,2668,5444,2095],"class_list":["post-2179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-ambrotypes","tag-books","tag-civil","tag-civil-war","tag-daguerreotypes","tag-delongs-gallery","tag-family","tag-family-history-2","tag-family-photographs","tag-family-photos","tag-family-research","tag-green","tag-history","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-photographs","tag-photography","tag-photos","tag-price","tag-research","tag-revenue-stamps","tag-tax-stamps","tag-technology","tag-union"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2179"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78409,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179\/revisions\/78409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}