#Not that they would deign to sell such a collection to a mere American

[laureavandil]

I am trying very hard to be normal about this, but it is not possible:

I have been waiting for Sotheby's to release images of the Franklin Expedition ever since word got out they were going up for auction. Today, they were finally released and the world got to see the original daguerreotype of Francis Crozier for the first time.

Frank Dear, for the first time we get to see your true face. Still not as clear and sharp on details as some others, but as good as we will ever get. I cried when I first saw him, and now I am unable to stop smiling. I did not think the original portrait would ever be found, and that it was forgotten in some archive or had crumbled to dust.

The march of providence is slow, but history teaches us to hope.

"Two dead men have I known In courtesy like to thee; Two dead men have I loved With a love that ever will be; Three dead men have I loved, and thou art last of the three."

~Tennyson