Fortress Monroe, Virginia, Albumen Photographs by William Baulch 

Lot of 3 albumen photographs in extra-large cabinet format, each on 8 x 5 in. mounts with the verso imprint of William Baulch, Fortress Monroe, VA. 

The military installation of Fort Monroe, located at the Southern tip of the Virginia peninsula, at Old Point Comfort in Hampton, VA, was identified in the early 17th century as a strategic defensive location, and during Virginia's first two centuries, defensive fortifications were built at Old Point Comfort. Fort Monroe, considered the most substantial facility, was completed in 1834, with the principal facility being named in honor of President James Monroe. Throughout the Civil War, Fort Monroe remained in Union hands, although the majority of Virginia joined the Confederacy. Under the provision of contraband policies, Fort Monroe gained notoriety as a historic site of freedom for former slaves, and following the war, CSA President Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at the fort over a period of two years. 

With the following post-Civil War views of Fort Monroe, captioned in ink on verso: 42 - Old Point Light, Fort Monroe, Va., with a bastion to the right, and what appears to be the lighthouse keeper's cottage at left, hidden by the trees; 117 - Ward Memorial Building, National Soldiers Home; and 125 - View from ramparts West, Fort Monroe, Va. The photographer, William Baulch, whose father had moved to Fort Monroe to establish the fort's first fire department during the Civil War, produced these images as part of a larger series of photographs capturing the fort and its surroundings. Baulch also owned and operated a store in Fort Monroe called the "Newspaper Depot," and presumably, this is where he sold the photographs throughout the 1880s.

Minor staining and soiling, mostly to mounts.