Do you have an interesting vintage photography story?
Submit it for publication on Old Photographic!

If you have a great story to tell about collecting vintage photography, or a helpful tip to share with your fellow Old Photographic members, why not submit it to us for publication on this site? We would love to read about your insights and thoughts on collecting photographs and related memorabilia and we're sure our members will too.

If we like your article we will publish it for the whole world to read, and if its a really good article we just might publish your article to the front page!

By D. A. Serrano

This Confederate officer smiles contentedly for the camera. A note in the case states “Prizeth with my most highly treasured, given to me by my darling Beo Bobby. died October 5, 1862, September 28, 63.” This image was recently identified by Nancy Dearing Rossbacher as Robert T. Willis, Co. I, 32 Va. Critically wounded and captured at Sharpburg, Bobby would be exchanged only to die later in Richmond. 1/6th plate Ambrotype Library of Congress, Liljenquist Collection.REESOne day at a long forgotten relic show, the late Herb Peck sat behind a table stocked full of Confederate images. Herb, along with William Albaugh were considered pioneers in collecting and Herb would happily answer this novice collectors foolish questions with patience and good humor. That day Herb showed me several ambrotypes he had for sale and when he got to one in particular that was interesting to me quoted a price that was three times as much as similar images. My “why so much” was answered with a quick reply “It’s a Rees” and showed me were it had been neatly inscribed in the emulsion REES. The cased image had a silvery luminescence’s that was incomparable to anything else I had ever seen, a simple Confederate soldier brought to life by an artist’s camera. What little was known about Rees was that he operated in Richmond during the war and never achieved the fame of his Northern counterparts like Brady, Alexander Gardiner and Timothy O’Sullivan to name a few. Outside of a few Confederate collectors his name was all but forgotten.