Description
Carte view of one of the unfortunate circumstances of war. This view shows a woman surrounded by 6 very young children. The reverse of the card bears a period ink inscription reading “The Soldiers Family of Orphans”. I don’t know that these are all children from one family as many of them appear to be the same age. They may have been orphaned children from one of the many homes that sprung up following the war to care for the children who had been left orphaned as a result of the war. Back marked out of Philadelphia, as early as 1864, Pennsylvania would operate nearly 45 orphanages across the state to care for the children orphaned by the war. I would suspect this view is from one of those institutions. Rare and unique carte view.
