Photograph of Andrew Johnson in Masonic Regalia

  • Creator: Carl Casper Giers (1828-1877)
  • Title: Photograph of Andrew Johnson in Masonic Regalia
  • Date: 1869
  • Historical Note: Taken in Nashville, in the final year of Johnson's term of office, this portrait of Andrew Johnson by photographer Carl C. Giers may have been intended to bolster the President's stature after he survived impeachment by just one vote. Vice-President Johnson, who had assumed office after Lincoln's assassination in 1865, was resented for too quickly "reconstructing" the South--allowing former Confederates who took an oath of allegiance to the United States to regain property and position and looking the other way as "black codes" restricting the activities of those granted full citizenship by the Civil Rights Act of 1866 became law in many southern states. Carl Giers, a German immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1845, ran a successful photographic studio in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1855 until his death. After Nashville was under the control of Federal troops, Giers changed the name of his studio from the Southern Photographic Temple of Fine Arts to the National Portrait Gallery.
  • Contributing Institution: Tennessee State Museum
  • Digital Publisher: Digital Initiatives, James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University
  • URL: http://cdm15838.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/shades
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