A few months ago I received an email from a visitor to the site who was the great-great-grandson of Marcus Comstock, Company A. He had a hardcover copy of Benson J. Lossing’s A History of the Civil War. This copy was issued by the War Memorial Association in New York in 1912 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Civil War.
On the inside cover is a hand-colored image of Comstock (post-war). I’ve seen 3 of these now – some have post-war images, one has a war-time image, all hand-colored. The majority of this set seems to be found in the original, 16-part softcover set that seems to have been issued on a weekly basis. I’m guessing that it was through a subscription since the Catalogue of Copyright Entries issued by the Library of Congress in 1913 shows these parts being issued each week during summer 1912.
So here’s the question, for anyone who might read this and be able to shed light on it: is it possible that these hardcover copies with the hand-colored and lettered images inside the front cover were done as part of a subscription/sales effort to increase the sale of the bound version? It makes sense – if I were a veteran of the war or the relative of one, this would make the book that much more interesting to me.
If you know, leave a comment. Thanks to Ed Comstock for sharing it with me.
It says there are 200 images of Soldiers in the Warren collection in the Bridgeport Library. Anyone have a list of those soldiers? My GGGrandfather was Michael Ryan in Co E. Thanks
At one time I had a listing of the images contained in that volume on the site. I’ll have to see if I can locate it. Just as an FYI, these are not loose or individual images but copies of the originals that were copied into one of the manuscript volumes.
My paternal grandmother colorized all her children’s B&W photos, she used watercolor I think but she did quite a few and people would come to her to do this.
By the way, awhile ago I sent you a Newspapers.com article about the 17th and Grant’s funeral, were you aware ofit?
Thanks for that additional information…perhaps that was the case here. I did not see the clipping you mentioned. I have one from 1938 that was sent via newspapers.com sent to me this past spring (that is the subject of a couple of posts from 2012), but not this one. I checked my spam filter and did not see it there, either!
I have a complete set of this series from 1912 in blue paperback form. Each “magazine” was 9″x12″ and each was about 32 pages. Each volume had a color lithograph. Beginning with the first volume the back cover of each announced the contents of the following volume including the color frontispiece/litho. At the end of the 16th volume there was a total 512 pages and the back cover of volume 16 notified all who received the sixteen sections of the history that there was an exclusive offer of a handsome case for holding the 16 volumes in fine cloth, embossed in gold with a design on the top and blue tapes attached for top, bottom and sides. It sold for 30 cents or postpaid for 38 cents. For me this was the Time Life series of the Civil War in 1912. I remember eagerly waiting each month in the 1980s for my Time Life Civil War volume to be delivered. I can certainly forward pictures of this paperback set if desired.