Beschreibung:

CDV by C.D. Fredricks & Co., New York, of the Union spy wearing a dress, signed in black ink in the recto margin. Cushman (1833-1897) was an aspiring teenage actress when she became involved in espionage on behalf of the Union. Caught with incriminating information, Cushman was sentenced to be executed as a spy and saved only by the timely arrival of Federal troops at her prison in Shelbyville, TN. Lincoln awarded Cushman an honorary major's commission and she engaged in cloak and dagger work until growing notoriety blew her cover. With the benefit of a populist biography, Cushman toured the country speaking about her wartime exploits and profiting from the sale of CDVs. Cushman's later years were marked by physical decline and tragedy, and at the age of 60, she died in San Francisco of a morphine overdose said to have been a suicide. Autographed Cushman CDVs are exceedingly rare, but we were able to confirm the signature by comparing it to the frontispiece engraving in her 1865 biography. Condition: Minor soiling at edges and a water stain in the lower left corner, not affecting the signature.