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(MILITARY—CIVIL
WAR—PHOTOGRAPHY.)
BOWSER, DAVID BUSTILL.
Rather Die Freemen than
live to be Slaves. United
States Colored Troops.
Carte-
de-visite albumen photograph
of one of David Bustill Bowser’s
painted cloth banners.
THIS
EXAMPLE BEARS BOWSER
’
S OWN
STAMP
(“
D
.
B
.
BOWSER ARTIST
”)
ON THE REVERSE
,
WITH A PEN
-
CIL NOTE SAYING THAT THIS
PARTICULAR BANNER WAS FOR
THE
3
RD COLORED REGIMENT
,
BOUND FOR NASHVILLE
,
TN
.
Philadelphia: Bowser, 1863
[3,000/4,000]
A VERY RARE CARTE
-
DE
-
VISITE PHOTOGRAPH OF ONE OF DAVID BUSTILL BOWSER
’
S ELABO
-
RATE BANNERS
,
created for one of the newly formed African-American regiments which were training
at Camp William Penn. David Bustill Bowser (1820-1900) artist, and designer, came from a long
line of Philadelphia’s black aristocracy and was a cousin of Frederick Douglass. The Bowser home was
a stop on the Underground Rail Road. Bowser studied art with Robert Douglass Jr. himself a pupil of
Thomas Sully. In 1863, following the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln gave the order allowing
the formation of colored regiments.