William Emerson Strong Photograph Album

William Emerson Strong (1840-1891) served as Inspector General and later Chief of Staff of the Army of the Tennessee (Union) during the American Civil War, 1861-1865. After the war, Strong began collecting war-related items. His collection included this photograph album, which he titled "Officers of Army and Navy and Notorious Characters of the So-called 'Confederate States'."

The Strong photograph album contains 200 cartes-de-visite (card photographs) mostly published in the mid-1860s. Subjects include officers in the Confederate Army and Navy, officials in the Confederate government, famous Confederate wives, and other notable figures of the Confederacy. Sixty-four photographs can be attributed to noted Civil War photographer Mathew Brady, with nine photographs issued by Brady himself and 55 issued by E. & H. T. Anthony & Co., a photograph marketing firm that acquired the Brady negatives in 1865.

Most of the photographs are identified, although individual names and other notes penciled below each photo may be misspelled or inaccurate.