Brady CDV of Napoléon-Paul Bonaparte

Brady CDV of Napoléon-Joseph-Charles-Paul Bonaparte (1822-91) was the son of Jérôme Bonaparte, the youngest brother of Napoléon I, and thus a nephew of the emperor. He participated in French politics both as an elected official in the republican order and as a member of a family with claims to the French throne. He was elected to the National Assembly in 1848, and in 1851 he was named as the successor to Napoléon III. After the fall of the empire he left France for England, but he returned in 1872 and sat in the Chamber of Deputies. Prince Napoléon traveled to the United States in 1861, which is most likely when this photograph was taken. The image is from an album of mostly Civil War-era portraits by the famous American photographer Matthew Brady (circa 1823-96)