Edgar Allen Poe in 1849
Edgar Allen Poe was one of the most eccentric, erratic, and talented writers of the 1800s, and it is such a great gift to have a few photos of the man mid-career. You can almost see the mixture of humor and horror in this photo.
Ruins of St. Louis Fire, 1849
This May, 1849 photo by Thomas M. Easterly shows the devastating results of a fire that engulfed the city of St. Louis May 17-18 of that same year. In addition to the damage you see to the city itself, it consumed many of the steamboats that were using the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers at the time. This came at a particularly hard time for the city as nearly 10% of the population had recently been killed by a cholera epidemic.
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