Tintype of man saluting against a backdrop of Grant's Tomb

The unidentified man in this portrait wears elements of traditional Mexican and Native American dress involving a sombrero style hat and an elaborately decorated waist belt bordered in cowrie shells. Typical of Mexican charro style, the wide brimmed sombreros were also adopted by American Indians in the Southwest. Indigenous cultures across North America, including the Apache, Ute, Cheyenne, and Sioux, used cowries as embellishments for various garments.