African Americana

2 1/4 x 3 7/8 in. CDV on cardstock mount (minor spotting). Titled in negative, photographer's imprint on recto, and period notation on verso, "Bought at the grave of John Brown among the Adirondack by A.S. Peck, 1882.”

Headstone inscribed, "In Memory of Capt. John Bro[wn] Who Died at New York Sept. ye 3 1776 in the 48 year of his age." Below is "John Brown / Born May 9, 1800 / was executed at Charles Town Va. / Dec. 2 1859" and below that is "Oliver Brown / Born Mar. 9 1839 was  / killed at Harpers Ferry." 

Captain John Brown (1728-1776) was Brown's grandfather, who died in New York in the Revolutionary War.  He was buried in Connecticut, and when a newer gravestone was erected, John Brown moved this headstone to his farm in his grandfather's memory. Brown's son Watson as well as his son Oliver, were killed in the raid on Harper's Ferry. Watson was brought to the farm for burial by Brown's wife in 1882, and Oliver in 1899 (along with 9 others who were all interred in the same casket).