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

Public Domain

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Images(4)

Artist George Jefferson GableAmerican, 1823–1900

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

Not on view

Explore Further

Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

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.

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