Description:

Jefferson Davis boldly signs a photograph for a prominent southern newspaper editor, who in turn presented it as a wedding present in December 1866 to H. Victor Newcomb, banker and founder of the West Shore Railroad, who became the focus of a notorious insanity case

JEFFERSON DAVIS (1808-1889) His signature, "Jeffrn: Davis," accomplished on a carte-de-visite photograph bearing a bust portrait of Davis by Vannerson & Jones of Richmond, Virginia, with the photographer's printed credit on verso. Very boldly signed by Davis in the blank portion beneath his image. Some minor damage to emulsion at top of the carte, not affecting the image, light marginal toning, else very good condition overall.

According to a note that had been placed on the backing of a frame that once displayed the carte (and is included here), the signed carte was " Presented to H[oratio] Victor Newcomb in 1866 by John R. Thompson of Virginia his groomsman - given[?] to John R. Thompson by Jefferson Davis that same year — For my darling boy Herman D[anforth] Newcomb a Christmas rembrance[?] 1889..."

John Reuben Thompson (1823-1873) was an American poet, journalist, editor and publisher. In 1847, he became the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, and in 1859 editor of The Southern Field and Fireside in Augusta, Georgia. Thompson did not take part in the Civil War due to health reasons. Instead, he went to London, from where he supported the Confederacy by writing articles in English magazines.

Horatio Victor Newcomb (1844-1911) was a prominent Louisville, Kentucky banker. He married Florence Ward Danforth on December 26, 1866 in a ceremony in Louisville. In 1880 Horatio moved to New York and organized the United States National Bank and took up residence in a house at 683 Fifth Avenue. He was also the founder of the West Shore Railroad. (B. M. Newcomb, "Horatio Victor Newcomb," America's Successful Men of Affairs: An Encyclopedia of Contemporaneous Biography, 1896.) Toward the end of the century, Newcomb became addicted to chloral and started behaving erratically, including threatening the life of H. M. Flagler of Standard Oil. At the time of his committal, he turned over his fortune to his wife and children. Upon his release the following year, he sued for return of his monies. A court declared him " sane" in August 1901 and he managed to recover his fortune and obtain a separation from his wife.

Herman Danforth Newcomb (1872-1958) was born in Louisville, Kentucky and married Miss Matilda Churchill, the great granddaughter of Colonel Armistead Churchill, who organized the Louisville Jockey Club which established the famous racetrack, Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. The couple divided their time between Wavetree Hall in Greenwood, Virginia and Louisville, Kentucky.

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