Hi Joe, The Grand America historical display seemed to be connected with the Glenn Beck show this evening. All I know about it was from an interview of Reed Moon on the radio on July 4th, I believe. The demand was so great that additional tours of the exhibit had to be added for this weekend. The display was not just American Revolution era, but extended to modern times. Back to your collection: I gather these are some of the reasons why your daguerreotypes are so rare: 1. This was the first photographic medium and did not gain widespread use until the mid 1800s 2. By that time there would have been few surviving veterans of the American Revolution because the youngest enlistees would be reaching their 90s. 3. Of those, a few opted to have their photo taken by the newfangled process which I assume was expensive at that time. 4. Of the daguerreotypes that exist depicting old people, the problem of positively identifying the person as a veteran of the war is difficult. 5. On the other hand, these early photos might be more likely to survive passing from one generation to the next because their weight could signify their importance as opposed to a paper object. Did I miss anything? I still don't understand what the card photo was for. Did one carry several of these for use as business cards of the times? What words does the acronym CDV stand for? And, what is the description on the bottom of your five card photos all about? It seems the two Moores were responding to an 1864 act of Congress to place card photos of veterans as a record in the District Court of Connecticut. The description for Lemuel Cook is misplaced downward indicating it was added to an existing card after the card was made. Was this perhaps an early version of the current effort of historians to record the exploits of WWII and subsequent war veterans before they all pass away? BTW, all of this is somewhat related to astronomy because Wikipedia claims that the first correctly exposed photo of an eclipse of the sun was done with the daguerreotype process. Thanks for helping us understand more about your collection, Ed