Your logic makes sense. That would also preclude it from being James Bowie in the photo, since he died in 1836. From the biography Three Roads to the Alamo by William C. Davis. Caption under the picture says "For half a century after James Bowie's death, no likeness of him was known to the public. Then in 1889, his brother Rezin's grandson John Seyborne Moore revealed a portrait - of which this is a detail - claiming that it was James, painted from life by an artist known simply as "West" - presumably William West. As with so much about the always mysterious James Bowie, even his likeness remains overcast by shadows of uncertainty."RobesonsRme.com wrote:After a bit of research, I'm skeptical that the photograph is of James Black.
He reportedly was born in 1800 and died in 1879 and supposedly was blind and incapacitated the last thirty years of his life.
The first known photograph of an individual was taken in 1838.
I don't know exactly when photography was widely available, certainly prior to The Civil War, though.
Charlie Noyes
Ken
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