Laterally Inverted

© Albert Kaplan 2015

Life Image

Grant Romer examined this tintype, and he told me that the housing was likely not original. He suggested that the original housing was probably of cardboard.

Attached to the backing of the plate is the printed form of what appears to be a photography studio in Bangor, Maine, strongly suggesting that the tintype was made at this studio in Bangor, Maine.

I contacted several historians in Bangor, and asked them if they were aware of a visit, to Bangor, of George Armstrong Custer. Neither was aware of such a visit. However, both gentlemen told me that one of Custer’s troopers was from the area.

The tintypist was superb.

Kaplan Collection	Known Images
	Laterally Inverted

“There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Cavalry”

 

– George Armstrong Custer

Post-Script
October 28, 2017

His victorious battlefield exploits embraced such intrepid valor, he was propelled to Major General rank merely four years after (barely) graduating from West Point, a meteoric advancement eclipsing even that of Napoleon. Often referred to as the “boy general”, it was an accepted likelihood that he would be a candidate for the presidency. His mistaken decision to pursue and annihilate an Indian force, continuing the United States genocide of this now essentially extinct race, cost him his life at a place called Little Big Horn.

P.S. I draw the viewers’ attention to the right hand fist. I have seen the same right hand fist in at least two other of his images. His fist tells us much about this poor man.