The Harvard class 1860 photographs held at the Library of Congress preserve the faces of fifty-three young men who sat for the Boston photographers Black and Batchelder in the spring of 1860, months before the Civil War tore their generation apart. Fifty-five per cent of the class would serve in the Union army and navy. Several of the men in these portraits would be dead within three years, killed at Gettysburg, Cedar Mountain, and the Wilderness. One classmate who withdrew before graduating, Robert Gould Shaw, would lead the first Black regiment raised in the northeastern states and die on the parapet of Fort Wagner.
The album belonged to Horace Howland, a member of the class who kept it for decades, adding handwritten notations recording each man’s military service, wounds, and death. In 2022, the Liljenquist family donated it to the Library of Congress, where every page has been digitised at high resolution and made freely available. What follows is a guide to the faces in that album and what became of the men behind them.
The album that survived
Harvard’s class album tradition began with the Class of 1852, when eighty-five seniors travelled to John Adams Whipple’s sky-lit studio on Washington Street in Boston to sit for daguerreotypes. By 1860, the process had shifted to albumen prints, and the photographer was the firm of Black and Batchelder. Each student received a small portrait, formally posed, mounted on a page in a leather-bound album. The students compiled their own albums, selecting which classmates’ portraits to include and sometimes adding campus views and faculty portraits.
Horace Howland’s album survives as a single volume covering surnames from A to M, containing fifty-three albumen prints. What makes it extraordinary is not the photographs themselves, which are conventional studio portraits of young men in waistcoats and starched collars, but what Howland wrote next to them. Beneath each portrait, in careful ink, he recorded the man’s place of residence, date of birth, and, for those who served, their complete military record: regiment, rank, promotions, wounds, and, for the dead, the place and date of their killing.
The men who did not come back
Henry Livermore Abbott of Lowell, Massachusetts, born 21 January 1842, entered Harvard at fourteen. The notation on his portrait reads: “2d Lieut. 20 Mass. Vols., 1 Lieut. 20 Mass. Vols., Captain 20 Mass. Vols., Major 20 Mass. Vols. Killed at the ‘Battle of the Wilderness’ Va. May 6, 1864.” Abbott had joined the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the regiment so full of Harvard men that soldiers called it the Harvard Regiment. He fought at Ball’s Bluff, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg, where he assumed command after his superiors fell. At the Wilderness, he ordered his men to fight from a prone position, then stood upright to encourage them. A bullet struck him in the abdomen. He was twenty-two. His friend and classmate Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. remembered him publicly for the rest of his life. Abbott’s father, Josiah Gardner Abbott, Harvard Class of 1832, was a judge of the superior court of Suffolk County. His brother Edward also served.
Charles Redington Mudge of Swampscott, Massachusetts, born 1839, is recorded by Howland as “1st Lieut., Captain, Major, Lt. Col., 2 Mass. Vols. Killed at Battle of Gettysburg.” Mudge rose through the ranks of the 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry to command the regiment at twenty-three. On 3 July 1863, at the foot of Culp’s Hill, he received an order to charge across Spangler’s Meadow, an open field swept by Confederate fire. “Well, it’s murder,” he reportedly said, “but it’s the order. Up men, over the works!” He was struck in the throat in the middle of the meadow and died instantly. The charge cost the 2nd Massachusetts 134 of its 294 men.
Edward Gardner Abbott, Henry’s brother, born 1840, also appears in the album. He received his AB from Harvard in 1860 and was commissioned as an officer in the 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He was killed at the Battle of Cedar Mountain on 9 August 1862, at twenty-two. The Abbott family’s Civil War letters, held at the Houghton Library, record the brothers writing home from camp, describing battle engagements and the deaths of friends.
Thomas Bayley Fox of Boston, born 1839, served as captain in the same 2nd Massachusetts regiment as Mudge. He fell wounded during the same charge across Spangler’s Meadow and died on 25 July 1863. Fox was remembered by his comrades as a man who never packed his battle kit without including works by Horace and Shakespeare. A chalk portrait of him by Thomas Murphy Johnston hangs in Memorial Hall at Harvard.
The men who survived
Caspar Crowninshield of Boston, born 23 October 1837, was the sixth member of his family to graduate from Harvard and the lead oarsman of his college crew. Howland’s notation records his service as “Captain 20 Mass. Vols., Captain 1st Mass. Cavalry, Major 2d Mass. Cavalry, Colonel, 2d Mass. Cavalry.” Crowninshield was among the first to enlist after Fort Sumter. On the train south, he wrote that he could not help feeling sad as he looked around, knowing how few of his companions might return. He survived the war, one of only forty-four from the original muster of the 20th Massachusetts to do so. He died in 1897.
Julius Dexter of Cincinnati, Ohio, born 23 September 1840, stands out in the album as one of the few classmates from beyond New England. His notation reads “1st Lieut., Ohio Vols.” Dexter served with the 106th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He survived the war and returned to Cincinnati, where he lived until 1898.
Arthur May Knapp of Boston, born 1841, is recorded as “Private, 44 Mass. Vols. (9 mos.).” His service was with the 44th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the nine-month regiments raised in late 1862. Not every man in the album who served held a commission; Knapp enlisted as a private, a reminder that the class of 1860 included men of varying means and ambition.
Horace Howland, the album’s owner, also appears among the portraits. It was Howland who, over the years, methodically recorded the fate of each classmate in the margins of their photographs, transforming a personal keepsake into a casualty list and genealogical document.
The missing face: Robert Gould Shaw
The most famous member of the Harvard Class of 1860 does not appear in Howland’s album, which covers only surnames A to M. Robert Gould Shaw, born 10 October 1837 in Boston to the abolitionist philanthropists Francis George Shaw and Sarah Blake Sturgis Shaw, had withdrawn from Harvard before graduating, though the university would later record him as AB 1860. Shaw was photographed at Harvard by John Adams Whipple, and that albumen print survives in the university archives.
Shaw joined the 7th New York Militia in April 1861, then transferred to the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry alongside his classmates Mudge and Fox. In early 1863, Massachusetts Governor John Albion Andrew offered him command of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first regiment of Black soldiers raised in the northeastern states. Shaw accepted. On 18 July 1863, he led the 54th in a frontal assault on Fort Wagner, outside Charleston, South Carolina. He was shot and killed on the parapet of the fort. Confederate officers buried him in a mass grave with his fallen soldiers, intending it as an insult; his family declared they could imagine no finer resting place for him. His more than two hundred wartime letters, held at the Houghton Library, have been fully digitised and are freely accessible.
What Horace Howland wrote in the margins
The full list of named individuals in Howland’s album, as catalogued by the Library of Congress, includes: George E.H. Abbott, Edward Gardner Abbott, Henry Livermore Abbott, B.F.D. Adams, George E. Adams, William H. Adams, Henry F. Allen, William S. Appleton, Henry D. Atwood, Frederic W. Batchelder, Selwin Z. Bowman, Fred W. Bradlee, Lane W. Brandon, Henry Burdick, Edward Carter, Henry A. Clapp, William G. Colburn, John T. Cole, W. Ellery Copeland, Caspar Crowninshield, Julius Dexter, Charles H. Doe, Edward F. Everett, Josiah Milton Fairfield, James C. Fernald, C.H. Fiske, Thomas B. Fox, William Eliot Furness, William C. Gannett, Frank Haseltine, Audley Haslett, James Haughton Jr., Horace John Hayden, Henry Hinckley, W.O. Holway, Mahlow Hopkins, Edwin Johnson Horton, Horace Howland, C.A. Humphreys, Francis Welles Hunnewell, John W. Hunnewell, Horatio Deming Jarves, Edward C. Johnson, A.M. Knapp, D.T.S. Leland, Henry Leonard, Henry S. Lyman, Charles James Mills, and Charles Redington Mudge.
Each name appears beside a portrait with Howland’s handwritten biographical annotation. For some, the notation is brief: a place of origin and nothing more. For others, it is a complete military service record in miniature. Each annotation is a potential genealogy finding aid, linking a name to a place, a regiment, and a fate.
Genealogy research note
The Howland album is held at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LOT 15556) as part of the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs. Every portrait has been digitised at high resolution and is available online with no known restrictions on publication. Individual portraits can be found by searching the Library of Congress catalogue for “Harvard class of 1860 yearbook portrait” followed by the individual’s name.
For biographical information on these men beyond what Howland recorded, the Harvard class reports are the essential source. The Secretary’s Report of the Class of 1860, published at intervals from the 1860s through the early twentieth century, contains detailed biographical entries including parents’ names, birthplaces, career histories, marriages, and children. Many of these reports are digitised on archive.org and HathiTrust. The Quinquennial Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates of Harvard University, 1636 to 1930, provides a master index of Harvard degree recipients and is the first place to check for any individual connected to the university.
Researchers tracing Civil War service should consult the compiled military service records at the National Archives (NARA) in Washington, D.C., many of which are accessible through Ancestry and Fold3. Massachusetts soldiers’ records are additionally held at the Massachusetts State Archives. Beyond the official service records, contemporary reporting in Boston and New England papers carried casualty lists, regimental dispatches, and family obituaries that often supply details missing from official files; researchers can search digitised obituaries and casualty notices for Civil War soldiers and their Boston families to find death notices, memorial tributes, and family announcements that named the regiment, the engagement, and surviving relatives. The Abbott family Civil War letters (MS Am 800.26) at the Houghton Library have been digitised and are publicly accessible, providing a remarkable window into the wartime experience of two brothers from the class.
For researchers tracing New England families connected to Harvard in this period, the university records genealogy guide on this site explains how to use the Quinquennial Catalogue, class reports, and Harvard University Archives holdings. The Harvard In Memoriam volumes contain extended biographical memoirs of graduates who died during and after the Civil War, including many members of the Class of 1860.
Named individuals in this article on Harvard class 1860 photographs
| Name | Dates | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Henry Livermore Abbott | 1842-1864 | Harvard Class of 1860; Major, 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; killed at the Wilderness |
| Edward Gardner Abbott | 1840-1862 | Harvard Class of 1860; Officer, 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; killed at Cedar Mountain |
| Josiah Gardner Abbott | 1814-1891 | Harvard Class of 1832; Judge, Superior Court of Suffolk County; father of Henry and Edward |
| Charles Redington Mudge | 1839-1863 | Harvard Class of 1860; Lt. Col., 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; killed at Gettysburg |
| Thomas Bayley Fox | 1839-1863 | Harvard Class of 1860; Captain, 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; died of wounds from Gettysburg |
| Caspar Crowninshield | 1837-1897 | Harvard Class of 1860; Colonel, 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry; survived the war |
| Julius Dexter | 1840-1898 | Harvard Class of 1860; 1st Lt., 106th Ohio Volunteer Infantry; survived the war |
| Arthur May Knapp | b. 1841 | Harvard Class of 1860; Private, 44th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry |
| Horace Howland | fl. 1860 | Harvard Class of 1860; owner and annotator of the surviving class album |
| Robert Gould Shaw | 1837-1863 | Harvard Class of 1860 (withdrew); Colonel, 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; killed at Fort Wagner |
| Francis George Shaw | 1809-1882 | Abolitionist philanthropist; father of Robert Gould Shaw |
| Sarah Blake Sturgis Shaw | 1815-1902 | Abolitionist; mother of Robert Gould Shaw |
| John Albion Andrew | 1818-1867 | Governor of Massachusetts 1861-1866; authorised the 54th Massachusetts regiment |
| Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. | 1841-1935 | Harvard Class of 1861; 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; later Associate Justice, US Supreme Court |
| John Adams Whipple | 1822-1891 | Boston photographer; Harvard class album photographer 1852-1859 |
Further reading for Harvard class 1860 photographs
- Portraits of students in Harvard’s class of 1860 (Library of Congress) : The complete digitised album with all fifty-three portraits and Horace Howland’s annotations.
- Abbott family Civil War letters, Houghton Library : Digitised letters from the Abbott brothers including details of battle engagements and camp life.
- Robert Gould Shaw letters, Houghton Library : Over two hundred wartime letters, fully digitised and publicly accessible.
- Daguerreotypes of members of the Harvard College Class of 1852 : The first Harvard class album, all eighty-three portraits digitised.
- Daguerreotypes at Harvard, CURIOSity Digital Collections : Over 3,500 daguerreotypes from across Harvard’s collections, including early class portraits.
- Memorial Hall paintings collection : Portraits of Civil War dead including Thomas Bayley Fox, Robert Gould Shaw, and Henry Ware Hall.
Details on images:
1. [Harvard class of 1860 yearbook portrait of Henry Livermore Abbott]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital ID: (digital file from original, front) ppmsca 85634 https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.85634
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-85634 (digital file from original, front)
2. [Harvard class of 1860 yearbook portrait of Charles Redington Mudge]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital ID: (digital file from original) ppmsca 85651 https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.85651
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-85651 (digital file from original)
4. [Harvard class of 1860 yearbook portrait of Casper Crowninshield]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital ID: (digital file from original) ppmsca 85639 https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.85639
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-85639 (digital file from original)
