Benjamin F. Powelson

Benjamin F. Powelson was an American photographer and writer active in the 19th century. He is associated with well-known photographic portraits, including images of Harriet Tubman and Olive Oatman, and museum and archival records identify him as living from 1823 to 1885.

For audiobook listeners, he is especially notable as the author of History of Company K of the 140th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers (1862-'65), a firsthand account of Union Army service during the Civil War. That background gives his writing an immediate, personal quality, with the feel of someone recording events close to the lives of the people who lived them.

Powelson's legacy is an unusual blend of visual and written history: studio portraits that preserved famous faces, and a soldier's chronicle that preserved memory from inside the war itself. Together, they make him an interesting figure for readers who enjoy eyewitness history and overlooked voices from the 19th century.