Between the Covers

Unbound. Sepia-toned gelatin silver photograph. Image measures 7¼" x 4¼" on 8½" x 5¼" decorative yellow photographer's mount. Four neat punch holes at the top; two through the photo and two through the mount. Captions on the back in ink states, "Col. Harts grave Palatka Feb 1884"; with a second similar pencil notation above it in the same hand. About near fine with light wear and tiny nick at the bottom right corner; mount has light edgewear and a small tear. The photo show three African-American men in front of a house: one standing, another petting a dog, and the third moving a crate of oranges in a wheelbarrow. In the background is a woman standing in the shadow of a porch holding a fair skinned child. The caption on the back is questionable given that the "Col. Hart" referenced - Hubbard L. Hart, a local businessman who ran a tourist steamboat turned blockade runner during the Civil War - died in 1895, well after this caption, and that no grave appears in the image. We suspect it is more likely an image of workers at Hart's orange grove, which served as a tourist destination for his cruise line following the war and that the captions refer to a preceding image. The photographer Mangold & Sons was an established photographer who produced a number of commercial images in and around Palatka, but we could not find another example of this image.

Item #501946