Rare CDV of Milton Wylie Humphreys – Confederate Veteran & Distinguished Scholar

Rare CDV of Milton Wylie Humphreys – Confederate Veteran & Distinguished Classical Scholar
 
This scarce carte de visite depicts Milton Wylie Humphreys (1844–1928), a notable Civil War veteran and one of the South’s leading classical scholars of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Photographed by the respected Nashville studio of C. C. Giers, the image shows Humphreys in a dignified pose befitting his academic stature.
 
Born in Greenbrier County, Virginia, Humphreys enlisted in the 13th Virginia Light Artillery as a gunner in March 1862 and served throughout the Civil War. After the war, he returned to Washington College (later Washington and Lee University), earned his M.A. in 1869, and later received a Ph.D. from the University of Leipzig in 1874. He held professorships at Washington and Lee, Vanderbilt University (as its first professor of Latin and Greek), the University of Texas, and finally the University of Virginia, where he taught Greek until his retirement in 1912. A prolific editor and translator of Greek texts, Humphreys was widely respected for his scholarship and contributed significantly to classical studies in America.
 
A fine, rare CDV of this accomplished Confederate veteran and longtime university professor, this photograph represents an excellent addition to collections focused on Southern educators, Civil War artillery officers, or Washington and Lee / University of Virginia alumni. An uncommon portrait of a remarkable 19th-century Southern intellectual.