Given the depths of invention exhibited by Berkman, the journals may well (probably? are) be as fake as the rest of the story, and aside from the name on the trunk and on the sign in the photograph of the 19th century New York streetscape, have no more bearing on reality than a fish on a bicycle.
I could tell by looking at the plates being shown in the article that they were modern images - the clean ones were TOO clean, and the rough ones were too rough for the 19th century. No self-respecting 19th century photographer would have allowed a plate to be printed or shown that had corduroy or oysters. The clean plates had a 21st century sense of contrast to them - there was something TOO sharp, with too much tonal range.
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