[benjulmag]

I want to thank everyone who read the newsletter supplement for taking the time to do so. I also want to thank everyone who followed this thread, as well as those who posted, for their interest in this question. I think threads such as this represent this board at its best.

To address briefly some of the points made:

1. First off, I totally understand the concern a number of people are having with the identification. I too had the same concerns 20 years ago when offered the opportunity to acquire the half plate. It was not until after I expended considerable time and resources researching the question that I became comfortable enough to purchase it.

2. At the time I purchased it, I did so without any belief Adams was depicted within the half plate inasmuch as at the time I had never seen any image of Adams. As to Mark's analysis of why the person identifed as Adams cannot be him, I will refrain from commenting until I have heard Mr. Richard's views. He is unavailable until next week. As to Curry, I did feel then, and continue to feel now, Curry is depicted. Based on superficial review done some months ago, Mr. Richards told me he liked the resemblance, though admitedly because he did not undertake a detailed comparison his views on this question are very preliminary. As to Henry Anthony, Jimmy in post 98 shows a later image of him. That is the first time I have seen that image. Based on resemblance alone, it looks to closely resemble the person seated to the right in the half plate. I have done no individual facial feature comparison of those two images so therefore I recognize that it is possible that person is not Anthony. I should point out that at the time the Knickerbockers organized in 1845, they had 28 original members. The significance is not which specific Knickerbockers are in the half plate, but whether these individuals are Knickerbockers.

3. I agree with Mark Evans in post 110 as to the strong resemblance of that image to the half plate image. That other image was acquired directly from the Cartwright family, and I believe it dates to the 1870's-1880's. It is a repro of what I believe to be an 1840's dag of AJC. Because I believe it to be the most contemporaenous comparison image to the half plate, I am not surprised as to the strong resemblance. As Mark (Fimoff) points out, because of the significant inpainting both experts agreed that that image was not a suitable comparison image for analyzing individual facial features. However, I still believe the image is important because it shows a strong overall resemblance.

4. Given the great rarity of half plate dags in mid-1840's, I continue to feel that the 6 people depicted within the half plate are individuals who share an important common bond. I also feel a Cartwright is one of the 6 subjects; much more likely than not this dag would have been in the possession of one of the depicted subjects. AJC's brother Alfred was a member of the Knickerbockers. Assuming what has been said is correct and he is not the person identified as AJC, IMO that reinforces the AJC identification. As to whether the person might be the other brother Benjamin, I have never seen an image of Benjamin so I can't prove that it is not. However, assuming the half plate to be a Knickerbocker image, which I believe it to be, I can't imagine why he would be in it inasmuch as he was never a member of the club.

5.(a). For those who opine there is no resemblance between the person identified as AJC in the half plate compared to the other A comparison subjects (views cited by both Mark and Mr. Mancusi as partial support for their conclusions), it makes no sense to me why resemblance amongst sibblings would fool the Cartwright family in the 1930's into believing AJC is depicted in the half plate. If there is no resemblance, what existed to fool them? Accordingly, that would suggest the family made the identification based on external information (e.g., it being long known within the family, originating with AJC himself, that the half plate was a Knickerbockers image depicting AJC).

(b). For those who say there is enough of a resemblance amongst the comparison images to mislead the family, then it would seem to me that that resemblance, in conjuction with the absence of exclusionary differences and the strength of the provenance, should at minumum make it more likely than not that the AJC identification is correct.

6. If it is true that the Cartwright family could have misidentified an ancestor one or two generations removed, why then could the misidentification not be of the person in the quarter plate, sixth plate or ambro? Why can't that same argument be used to support the identification by saying the comparison images are not AJC?

7. If two comparison subjects are not the same individual, then much more likely than not exclusionary differences would be found to exist. Therefore the absence of exlusionary differences here is quite significant.