What's Your Job?

Blacksmith with tools, c. 1852.
Note the vest, scarf and rolled sleeves.
Image from The Design Observer Group.

Wondering about civilian professions in the 1860s?  Unsure what to wear? Curious about the 'tools of one's trade'?  Here are some resources for occupational images (either staged daguerreotypes/tintypes/CDVs showing 'types' of workers with their tools, or actual documentary pictures).  Many of these are loosely dated, or slightly/rather pre-war, but they still have useful background information.  Even the professional soldiers of the '60s would have interacted with tradesmen (and perhaps trained for an occupation at some point), while wartime volunteers all would have some sort of job before enlisting.


These Dated Images from the 1840s and 50s show a diverse range of trades and professions.

There are also slideshows of occupational images from the1840s/50s On Youtube.

The American Daguerreotype Society has fewer images, but with more commentary on them.

And there are more pictures here, but without useful contextual information.

These 1860s Russian CDVs show a great diversity of jobs and tools, with a mixture of traditional Russian and modern European dress--look to other sources for collaborating stylistic choices, unless you're portraying a very recent immigrant.

Women's occupational images. (For more about jobs open to women, check out Virginia Penny's 1863 book "The Employments of Women").

Illustrations of poor Londoners, 1851.  These include working people and the indigent.

The Library of Congress's Daguerretype collection: enter the occupation of interest, and voila!