Two albino boys stand side by side in a full-length studio portrait, captured as a CDV by C. D. Fredricks & Co. at 587 Broadway, New York, a prominent firm that also maintained locations in Paris and Havana. The presence of a three-cent federal revenue stamp affixed to the reverse dates the card to the 1864 to 1866 period, when such stamps were required on photographic portraits under the U.S. Internal Revenue Act.

Both boys wear matching double-breasted wool suits with brass buttons and dark trim at the cuffs, paired with white shirts, dark bow ties, and polished lace-up shoes. Their most striking feature is a full mass of pale, wild hair that frames downcast eyes with closed or near-closed lids, and the boy on the left rests one hand atop a folded item, likely a cap, while leaning slightly against a low wooden surface.

C. D. Fredricks & Co. was one of nineteenth-century New York's most celebrated portrait studios, and albino subjects were frequently photographed for exhibition or commercial carte sale during this era. The reverse carries the studio's ornate purple imprint with the motto "Et Facta Est Lux," Latin for "And There Was Light."

The reverse bears a three-cent green U.S. Internal Revenue stamp, canceled with an inked cross, above the full studio imprint listing New York, Paris, and Havana addresses.

From the collection of James Lee Soffer