American Historical Ephemera & Photography

7 5/8 x 5 5/8 in. (visible area) albumen photograph housed under mat and cover glass in pressed paper frame, 12 x 10 in. (toning, some fading, small area of loss to left edge of print; loss to frame, unexamined outside frame). The subjects, location, and date of the photograph (incorrectly listed as 1867) are identified in period ink on paper label affixed to lower margin of mount. One of the inscriptions notes that the photograph was presented by Mr. Alex. Stoddart to Dr. C.A. Leale, 30 May 1889. The recipient may be Dr. Charles Augustus Leale (1842-1932), the first medical professional to reach Abraham Lincoln after he had been shot at Ford's Theatre. 

The photograph was taken by D.A. Anderson & G.G. Johnson in August 1869 during Lee's third annual trip to visit the "healing" waters of White Sulphur in West Virginia. Personalities in the portrait include: standing (left to right), Confederate generals John Bankhead Magruder, A.R. Lawton, P.G.T. Beauregard, "Gen. Anderson" (possibly Richard H. Anderson), Henry A. Wise, "Gen. Moseby" (possibly John Singleton Mosby), and "Gen. Cameron"; seated, (left to right), Blacque Bey, Turkish envoy, Robert E. Lee, George Peabody and W.W. Corcoran, both philanthropists, and James Lyons, a Richmond lawyer. The Face of Robert E. Lee by Roy Meredith conveys the author's insightful commentary on the White Sulphur photographs as they mark Lee's gradual decline. The author explains that while the majority of the men remained remarkably still while the two plates were made, Lee "dropped his hat; he shifted in his chair in a way that suggests discomfort, even pain" (Meredith, 1981: 80-81). A rare variation of this famed group portrait not referenced in Meredith's book.