When I first laid eyes on this image I was stunned. This is impossible, I said to the computer screen. Tom Cruise in the 1860s? – dressed as a cowboy?
A quarter plate ambrotype in a full case.
Taken somewhere between 1860 and 1865.
Photographer unknown.
Place of origin unknown, although a colleague thinks the outfit appears southeastern.
But this guy looks like a movie star – with the favored facial features of today and would have women swooning today as well as in the 1860s.
And what’s he got?
He has a classic top hat.
He has a fringed jacket.
He has a leather vest with unusual attachments.
He has a flintlock rifle with a fancy inlaid stock.
He has crossed belts across his chest of Native design.
He has a large knife in his belt and two powder flasks and a pouch hang from his belt.
He is too much!