Carte de Visite of Henry Ward Beecher

1870. An Important American Minister, Abolitionist and Orator Beecher, Henry Ward [1813-1887]. [Carte de Visite of Henry Ward Beecher]. [Boston?, c.1859-1870]. Paper-print photograph mounted on 4" x 2-1/2" (10 x 6.35 cm) card, caption below image. Light toning, negligible wear, minor soiling. $150. * Beecher was a Congregational minister and activist from a distinguished family. He was the son of Lyman Beecher, a minister and reformer, and the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the abolitionist and author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. He was nationally famous for his oratorical talents, distinctive theology and support for a wide range of social causes, most notably abolition. Famously musing that a rifle was more useful there than "a hundred Bibles," he raised money to send rifles to fellow abolitionists in Kansas during the 'Bleeding Kansas' period. These were known as "Beecher's Bibles.