MEDICAL ANTIQUES ARCHIVES
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A remarkable Civil War grouping that belonged to Anson Hurd, M.D. (1824-1910), who served as an assistant surgeon in the 20th Indiana (22 July 1861-January 1862) and a surgeon in the14th Indiana (21 April 1862-28 December 1862). The collection is comprised of a dated 1861 superb full-figure albumen photograph of Hurd (he wears the uniform of the U.S. regimental surgeon, a model 1840 Medical Staff sword, a sash, and a kepi with M.S. hat device), his pair of shoulder straps (missing pinned-on rank insignia) dated 1861 in Hurd's hand, a single 1st lieutenant's shoulder strap dated 1863 in Hurd's hand, his emerald green surgeon's sash (lacking one tassel), over a dozen war-date letters to his wife, including ones with first-hand accounts of the times around the Battles of Second Manassas, Antietam, and Fredericksburg (all full of detail and emotion), war-date letters from his wife, various other photographs, letters, GAR items, his office nameplate, and his lengthy obituary from the Findlay, Ohio, newspaper. The Antietam photograph is shown only for comparison purposes.
Dr. Hurd is well-known to Civil War medical historians as two Gardner photographs taken of him around 20 September 1862 among the Confederate wounded of the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg) are widely reprinted. For a detailed discussion on Hurd's history and the location of these photographs, see William Frassanito, Antietam, The Photographic Legacy of America's Bloodiest Day, pp. 215-223. In the photographs, Hurd is shown with his sash across his chest, indicating that he was the officer-of-the-day. Hurd left military service late in December 1862 due to exhaustion, and the sash offered here is most probably the very one worn in these pictures and the formal portrait. (Note the sash's large knot and long tassels common to all the images.) There are many more interesting aspects to this important archive.
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