The 1860s were a decade of profound transformation: war, invention, migration, and quiet moments of daily life, all unfolding against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world. These 45 remarkable photos offer a rare window into that era, from Civil War camps and steamships to Parisian storefronts and Native American delegations. You’ll see families fleeing conflict, children holding still for early portraits, and soldiers posing in front of the very places they fought to protect. Some images feel strikingly modern; others, impossibly distant. But together, they bring the 1860s into vivid focus: raw, human, and unforgettable.
1. Disguised as a man, Frances Clayton served many months in Missouri artillery and cavalry units in the Civil War. Photo circa 1864.
2. A British veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and his wife sitting for a photograph in the 1860s.
3. A creole woman in Louisiana circa 1860
4. Prisoners outside of their cells at the Joliet Prison in Joiliet, Illinois circa 1860.
5. A woman waits for her massive hoops to be completed in a London dress shop in 1860.
6. 1860 tintype of a young woman. A wonderful example of hair, clothing, and jewelry of the time.
7. The first inauguration of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, on March 4th, 1861.
8. Missouri housewife Rachel Young King, circa 1860, holding her diary, which she kept during the Civil War.
9. Young chimney sweeps in Hamburg, Germany in 1860.
10. A newspaper vendor at a Union camp in Virginia during the Civil War in 1863
11. Hoops and Petticoats for sale in the 1860s
12. A Union Army cook at camp near City Point, Viriginia, sometime between 1861 and 1865.
13. Portrait of a serious man and his goofy dog in Uppsala, Sweden, in the 1860s.
14. Memorial 1st Subway Ride in London, 1862
15. USS Galena, 1862
16. Washington, D.C. in 1963
17. A refugee family leaving a war area with belongings loaded on a cart circa 1862.
18. Central Park’s creators on Willowdell Arch in 1862
19. A Chippewa man in Washington, DC, 1862
20. Samurai with a longbow in 1863
21. A girl holding her sister’s head still for a photograph in 1864.
22. The Ponca Indian Delegation in 1865
23. Federal wagon trains moving out of Atlanta at the beginning of Sherman’s March to the Sea in November 1864.
24. A black Union Solider sits outside of a slave auction house on Whitehall Street in Atlanta, Ga, in 1864
25. Boston in 1860. The first ariel photograph of an American city.
26. Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession at the corner of 6th and Chestnut street in Philadelphia, 1865
27. Passengers in the main cabin of the river steamboat Great Republic circa 1867
28. A Native American in 1867 looked down on a newly completed Transcontinental Railway section 435 miles from Sacramento.
29. Argentine Gaucho in 1868
30. Tintype of two boys in hats circa 1868
31. Barkerville, British Columbia, circa 1868.
32. Virginia City mine workers in 1868
33. Building of the Metropolitan District Railway in London, 1869
34. A street in Corinne, Utah, in 1869
35. Flooded street in Montreal in 1869
36. On board the Nereid during its 1869 cruise
37. The ‘Champagne Toast’ image memorializing the driving of the golden spike joining the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads in Utah. 1869.
38. A happy couple in the 1860s
39. A rare ‘action shot’ of London in the early 1860s taken from the clock tower at the London Bridge.
40. Parisian drapery store ca 1860
41. A group gathered at the Freund Gun Store in Laramie, Wyoming, in the 1860s
42. Tintype of a Native American man arrayed in a beautiful combination of textiles and textures, circa 1860s.
43. Visiting the Acropolis in Athens, 1860
44. Murfreesboro, Tennessee town square in the 1860s
