An original nineteenth-century Civil War era antique carte de visite full-length portrait of a woman beautifully showcasing an exquisite example of mid-1860s Victorian mourning attire. She wears a rich, dark silk day gown featuring dense vertical knife pleating along the baseline floor hem, layered under a matching black lace shawl wrap. Her headwear consists of a dark structured day bonnet or hat supporting an exceptionally long, translucent black fabric mourning veil that trails elegantly down her back past her waistline. She stands before a neutral studio backdrop beside an ornate carved wood side parlor table and a high decorative leather high-backed chair.

The reverse side displays a spectacular, well-preserved full-page light gray checkerboard patterned background enclosing a decorative central cartouche mask. Inside the frame sits a beautiful, crisp fountain pen ink presentation inscription documenting a formal three-part given name sequence within the historic Cavendish family line, with Emily appearing clearly as a middle name or maternal branch indicator. The baseline of the front margin bears the pre-printed studio credit C.D. Fredricks & Co., N.Y., matching the faint purple oval stamp inside the reverse scroll identifying Charles DeForest Fredricks' elite gallery at 587 Broadway, New York. Crucially, the back is enhanced by an authentic, blue two-cent U.S. Internal Revenue Proprietary tax stamp featuring a hand-inked pen cancel stroke, which legally anchors the creation of this photograph to the peak Civil War taxation window between August 1, 1864, and August 1, 1866.

This authentic historical photograph exhibits wonderful rich sepia and charcoal tones, strong dark contrast, and remarkable focal sharpness across the woman's features, the delicate weave of her black lace wrap, and the texture of her mourning veil. The card mount is comprised of a traditional thin card stock composition featuring clean square corners typical of the mid-1860s. The mount shows only minor edge handling wear, very soft corner rubbing, and gentle universal age-related toning consistent with a genuine, beautifully preserved 160-year-old photographic artifact from New York City.