This is a cabinet card showing Samuel J. Reader (1836-1914), who was born in Pennsylvania. He began a diary at the age of 13 and continued it until his death in 1914 at the age of 78. The diary--and the autobiography he wrote from it--describes his move to Kansas Territory in 1855, his claim near Topeka, his military experiences, farming, and his later service as Soldier Township trustee and school district clerk. He liberally illustrated his diary and recorded these events on canvas. His best known works are his drawings and paintings of territorial and Civil War experiences including the Battle of the Blue, which he is working on in this photograph. Although rather naïve in style, Reader's illustrations provide a valuable record of early Kansas history, its social and political events.