Adolphe Thiers, identified by the printed caption “Thiers” beneath the portrait, was the French statesman and historian who became the first president of the Third Republic and whose government suppressed the Paris Commune in May 1871. No photographer’s studio imprint appears on this mount beyond the printed name.

He is shown in half length, head turned slightly toward the camera, wire-rimmed spectacles perched on his nose. His hair is swept back and thinning at the crown, and he wears a heavy dark coat with a wide collar over a loosely tied cravat and high white collar, his expression composed and direct.

A historian and journalist before entering politics, Thiers served multiple terms as a minister under the July Monarchy and later headed the Government of National Defense following the collapse of the Second Empire. As chief executive of the new Republic, he ordered the army’s assault on Paris that crushed the Commune during the Bloody Week of May 1871, a campaign that cemented his reputation among republicans as the Commune’s chief adversary even as it cost him support on the left; he resigned the presidency in 1873 and died in 1877.

The reverse is inscribed in pencil, “Adolphe Thiers / 1797-1877 / Fr. Statesman & Historian” and, below, “Suppressed the Paris Commune 1871,” with the archival notations “7/18/06,” “COLAAZ,” and “Eb.”