Description:

Garfield James 1831 - 1881

James Garfield signed photograph dating around assassination.

Black and white Artotype carte de visite of 20th U.S. President James Garfield signed by him as "J.A. Garfield." along bottom. Stamped "Harroun & Bierstadt, Artotype, N.Y." in bottom right corner. The photograph is on board surrounded by a gilt edged black border, the whole measuring 4.125" x 6.5". In very good to near fine condition, with expert restoration to photo far from the bold signature. Expected surface wear including overall craquelure.

Harroun & Bierstadt photographed James Garfield (1831-1881) in ¾ profile facing right, complete with grizzled beard and remote gaze. Under the auspices of the Artotype Company, Harroun & Bierstadt operated their studios at 58 and 60 Reade Street, New York between 1878-1885. This bust portrait thus probably dates between 1878 and Garfield's assassination in 1881. Harroun & Bierstadt employed a new photographic process wherein a photograph was printed by printing press. The resulting print, known as an Artotype, looked crisp and life-like, almost as if it had been hand-drawn. Harroun & Bierstadt are also known for their travel and medical photography.

This studio portrait was taken towards the end of James Garfield's life. He was shot in a Washington train station lounge by disgruntled office seeker Charles J. Guiteau (1841-1882) on July 2, 1881. The second bullet lodged near Garfield's pancreas but was irretrievable despite Alexander Graham Bell's attempts to locate the bullet using the newly developing science of metal detection. After five months of excruciating convalescence in the White House and along the New Jersey shore--where he was probed by many doctors unfamiliar with basic germ theory--Garfield died from complications of an infection at age forty-nine. The presidential assassin Guiteau was executed by hanging in 1882 following one of the first American court proceedings that considered insanity as a mitigating factor.

A handsome carte de visite signed by James Garfield around the time of his 1881 assassination!

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