Peter S. Weaver, Photo of Posed Scene in the Slaughter Pen at Gettysburg

Description

Original 1863 photo from glass plate, labeled “Culps Hill / Gettysburg” by Peter S. Weaver, who portrayed a “posed scene” in the Slaughter Pen.

On November 11, 1863, Gettysburg photographer Peter S. Weaver visited the Devil’s Den and Slaughter Pen area of the Gettysburg battlefield with several Union soldiers who seem to have been assigned to the Camp Letterman hospital. Also in attendance were two doctors working for an embalming firm working in Gettysburg. They made several photos of the soldiers pretending to be dead among the rocks. Scenes of soldiers posing as dead were quite popular at the time.

The photos Weaver produced were mounted on boards and hand-labeled on the verso.  Often the photos were not taken at the actual spots so named.  Historian William Frassanito cites compelling evidence that the photos were produced by Weaver for sale as souvenirs at the November 19, 1863, dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery, where President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.

This photo is described in Frassanito’s Early Photography at Gettysburg as being made among rocks in the Slaughter Pen area that can still be seen adjacent to the parking area for the Devils Den tour stop in the Gettysburg National Military Park. The penciled label on the rear of the board identifies the scene as “Culp’s Hill / Gettysburg.” The misidentification was almost certainly because of a commercial decision on Weaver’s part to offer customers souvenir photos supposedly portraying various prominent locations on the battlefield.

Photo toned as usual with light foxing on mount; image lightly solarized at left side. Another copy of the same photo reproduced in Early Photography at Gettysburg is not solarized, suggesting that this image was overexposed in processing as Weaver hurried to produce photos to sell on November 19.

Weaver, Peter S. “Culps Hill / Gettysburg” Posed scene in the Slaughter Pen. Albumin Photo from glass plate 13” x 10/1/2” (approx.), 11 November, 1863 (Frassanito. Early Photography at Gettysburg, 299-300).