PRESIDENT JAMES A. GARFIELD - PHOTOGRAPH UNSIGNED - HFSID 169693

JAMES A. GARFIELD. Photograph, unsigned. Sepiatone, 5¼x8¼ overall, oval image 4¾x6½ on 5x7½ sheet affixed to mount (two surfaces). Facsimile signature beneath image. Boudoir card published by the eminent studio of Abraham Bogardus, New York between 1890 and 1910. Bogardus was one of the more famous photographers of the day and was a founder of the National Photographic Association (1868) and its President by 1869. His imprint appears on the face of the card and ornately on the back, commensurate with the style of the period. The Boudoir card was a patented name for a card-mounted photograph that was distinguished by its size. Devised between the 1870s and 1880s, they have larger mount than the traditional cabinet card. The last chief executive born in a log cabin, James Abram Garfield (1831-1881) rose to the rank of Major General in the U.S. Army during the Civil War before resigning his commission to take a seat as a Congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives (1863-1880). In 1876, he was a Republican member of the electoral commission that awarded 22 hotly contested electoral votes to Rutherford B. Hayes. A political moderate, Garfield was the compromise choice of a deadlocked Republican Convention in 1880. Nominated on the 36th ballot, he was elected 20th U.S. President by a narrow margin, resigning from his newly elected U.S. Senate seat to assume the presidency. During Garfield's brief service as President (March 4 to September 19, 1881), he pledged to reform the Civil Service system and eliminate the spoils system. Garfield fell victim to its injustice by trying to make fair appointments to qualified people. He was shot on July 2, 1881 by Charles J. Guiteau, a self-proclaimed "Stalwart" (a radical faction of the Republicans) who had been declined as Paris consul. Lightly soiled. Mount is chipped at upper edge. Worn at gilt border and edge of mount corners. Tack hole at lower blank margin. Stained on verso (no show through). Overall, fine condition. Framed in the Gallery of History style: 12x20½.