The American Museum of Photography:
History painting already had a long and distinguished career when photography finally came along in 1839. While on-the-spot photojournalism would not arrive until faster materials and cameras became available in the 20th century, manipulated photographs sometimes masqueraded as documentary pictures.
Here, the President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, is shown staring down the bayonetted barrel of a Union rifle as he is captured at the end of the Civil War. While accounts of his apprehension vary, Davis was apparently wearing his wife's overcoat and a shawl in an effort to escape detection. (The bonnet tied with ribbons and the makeshift skirt are among the embellishments added by "fevered reporters" eager to ridicule Davis as a cowardly cross-dresser, making this an early example of propaganda photography.) When soldiers caught a glimpse of Davis's riding boot, they realized that he was no lady.
In this concocted image, only the face and perhaps the boot have photographic origins; the rest is the handiwork of an artist.
--
Francis Hacker (Rhode Island): Jeff's Soliloquy. Albumen carte de visite photocollage, 1865.
