Found recently at an auction, listed as:

"Unnamed Canadian Soldiers, WWI"

Like thousands of family photos thrown out at auctions this photo postcard had no names attached. These faces, so young, so exuberant, so proud, had lost their names, their identity to History

Did they survive the war, or were they among the fallen, their bodies mashed into the soil of France...

We will never know... or will we?

General Grant was Commander-in-Chief of the Union Army during the last part of the US Civil War (1861-1865). He later became an unsuccessful President of the United States, his office much used, for base personal advantage, by a host of hangers-on (1869-1877).

Is this Grant in his more carefree pre-Civil War years? The photo was taken in Boston probably c 1860.

Compare the hair location and swirls, the nose and nose shadow, the mouth line and upper lip, the deep set eyes, the broad forehead, the ear and ear shadow... And isn't that exactly how Grant used to sit?

Is this the young Wilfrid Laurier, just starting out on his political career. It's a Topley CDV, taken in Ottawa, ON in the late 1870s, of a man who certainly has a sense of self-assurance and poise. Topley would, of course, photograph Laurier as Prime Minister decades later.

Is this an early photo of Canada's greatest Prime Minister as a young man-in-waiting?

Compare: Obviously a man of letters, a visionary pose, no not a pose, the look is part of the man...

Beware of Fakes!

It is a great thrill if you can find an autographed CDV of a celebrity - like one of the wife of Sir John A Macdonald, right.

But beware of hucksters trying to sell you a fake!

Left above is a CDV purported to be of Sir Wilfrid Laurier's illegitimate daughter, with Emily Lavergne, the wife of his law partner Joseph Lavergne. Note, he said, the strong resemblance between Gabrielle and Sir Wilfrid! So pomposited an ebay seller who specialized in historic photographs. Complete with signed autograph. Very nice!

But a fake!

Laurier did not have an illegitimate daughter, with Emily as this ebay huckster claimed... He had a son! Armand, or so it is said by those who claim to know such things.

Look at the close resemblance, they said. See, just like Laurier - and unlike his father - Armand has no moustache! And there was an undeniable something there! In truth Laurier was totally infatuated with Emilie from 1874 to 1897, when his duties as Prime Minister took him away from affairs of sorts, to affairs of state. He even appointed her husband to the Bench. That, said the cynics, was so he could keep an eye on him; he always knew where he was! Or was it gratitude, or guilt , or all of the above?

So Gabrielle's photo remains simply that, an autographed CDV of the daughter of a bad mom! Unlike her mom, she is an also-ran in History...

It is very nice to find an autographed CDV of Emily Lavergne herself, a most remarkable and cultured woman, seated on a chair, and wondering who will come through the door, Sir Wilfrid, or her husband Joseph!

A wonderful treasure, in immaculate condition, which she signed for someone special... I wonder...

Laurier, clockwise from the right: c1880, 1880, 1874, 1880, 1890.