The Powell photograph was taken by the Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner, who posed the 21-year-old man against what appears to be the pitted metal cover of the ship’s gun turret.

Alexander Gardner owned one of the few galleries which rivaled Mathew Brady's in illustrious clientele and prestige. He was Scottish-born and emigrated to New York in 1856 when he was 35 years old.

Thousands of Civil War images, original 19th-century photographs from such renowned photographers as Timothy O'Sullivan and Alexander Gardner, lay perfectly preserved in the attic of the Medford ...