Handcolored Ambrotype of John Salmon ("Rip") Ford, circa 1856

01

Artifact Overview

John Salmon Ford (1815-1897) posed in a fringed buckskin outfit for this ambrotype sometime in the late 1850s. Around this time, Ford served as a Texas Ranger fighting the Indigenous peoples and quelling border tensions with Mexico. Ford later became a colonel in the Confederate cavalry, leading his forces at the Battle of Palmito Ranch, the last military engagement of the Civil War.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Ambrotype (Photograph)

Date Made

circa 1856

Subject Date

circa 1856

Place of Creation

Location

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

2000.0.62.1

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Material

Glass (Material)
Collodion
Brass (Alloy)
Metal

Technique

Direct positive processes
Hand coloring

Dimensions

Height: 5.563 in
Width: 4.313 in
Length: 0.675 in