George Jefferson Gable
[Harry and Eliza Stephens and Their Children]

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • [Harry and Eliza Stephens and Their Children]
Date1866
MediumAlbumen silver print from glass negative
DimensionsImage: 2 7/16 × 3 5/8 in. (6.2 × 9.2 cm)
Sheet: 2 7/16 × 3 5/8 in. (6.2 × 9.2 cm)
Mount: 4 × 5 1/16 in. (10.1 × 12.8 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Buddy Taub Foundation, Dennis A. Roach and Jill Roach, Directors
Object number2020.136.1
Current Location
The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building
Gallery 208
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

Despite its small size, this modest family portrait is monumental in its meaning—a poignant episode in the journey of African Americans. Harry and Eliza Stephens and their children—Quinn, Fanny, Ellen, Dora, and Tim—were enslaved at Liberty Hall, home of Alexander Hamilton Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy. Having survived slavery and the Civil War when so many other families were broken and dispersed, they present themselves as a proud, loving, and indivisible family unit. At the right edge, George, the gardener and stable man at the nearby Crawfordville School, holds a United States flag.


Provenance[Swann Auction Galleries, Printed & Manuscript African Americana, May 7, 2020, Sale 2534, Lot 260]; purchased by MFAH, 2020.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed in black ink, verso: Group of Servants of Vice Pres[iden]t Alex[ande]r
H. Stephens taken in 1866 in
the grove at Liberty Hall, Ga.
1. Harry the Manager.
2. Quinn the boy baby.
3 Aunt Eliza the cook.
4. Fanny youngest girl.
5. Ellen, the housemaid
6. Dora, second girl.
7. Tim the house boy
8. George, with [U.S.] flag, gardener and stable man.
Crawfordville School.
Biographer of
Stephens Henry M. Cleveland.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

[Papers of Alexander H. Stephens and the Family of Harry and Eliza Stephens]
1866–1907
Letters and manuscripts
2020.136.1-.6.A-.M
Alexander H. Stephens and His Faithful Attendant Alexander Kent
c. 1875
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2020.136.4
[Mary and Julia Jackson (Later Mary Louisa Fischer and Julia Prinsep Stephens)]
James Mudd
1857–1858
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2023.1107
Alexander H. Stephens
Mathew B. Brady
1860–1865
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2020.136.3
[Julia Jackson (Later Julia Prinsep Stephen)]
mid-1860s
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2023.1108
Jar
Jefferson S. Nash Pottery
c. 1850
Alkaline-glazed stoneware
B.82.2
Jug
Jefferson S. Nash Pottery
c. 1850
Alkaline-glazed stoneware
B.2012.83
Jar
Jefferson S. Nash Pottery
c. 1850–1860
Alkaline-glazed stoneware
B.2012.84
[Two British Children with an Indian Man]
c. 1860
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2022.202
John B. and Anna Alexander and Their Ten Children
Richard Dykes Alexander
c. 1854
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2022.22
Our Protection. Rosa, Charley, Rebecca. Slave Children from New Orleans.
Charles Paxson
1864
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2020.88
The Allatoona Pass, Ga.
George N. Barnard
1864
Albumen silver print from glass negative
96.1056