A Guide to the Natchez Trace Collection Photographs, ca. 1855-1920.

Scope and Contents

Portraits (cartes-de-visites, cabinet cards, and tintypes) include members of several Natchez and Vicksburg area families, such as Archer, Turpin, Finnery, and Drake. Collection also contains portraits of several Confederate generals, including Robert E. Lee, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Sterling Price. Some of these were published by E. & H. T. Anthony & Co. of New York City. Many portraits are unidentified and arranged by photographer. Significant among these photographers are Samuel Anderson, William W. Washburn, William H. Leeson, and Gustave A. Moses of New Orleans; H. J. Herrick, A. L. Blanks, and French & Co. of Vicksburg; and Gurney of Natchez. A small series of Gurney photos of unidentified buildings and houses (probably Natchez) is included. Commercial views of Colorado and the Rocky Mountains were taken by George E. Mellen, William Henry Jackson, and others. The many stereographs include scenes of Vicksburg made by Herrick and Blanks, views of Baltimore, and two famous White House views published by J. F. Jarvis in 1873. The hand-tinted theater stereographs from France were common in the 1860s and 1870s. Two stereopticons are available for viewing stereographs. The large series of unidentified Kodak prints (ca. 1900) consists of views of the Matt Stewart Hardware Store, a parade, bicyclists and photographers in action, and various groups of people. They were probably taken in the area along the Mississippi River between Memphis and St. Louis. The lantern slides include Washington D. C. street scenes, churches, and federal buildings. The Panama slides are primarily of street scenes in Panama City and Colon and of the construction of the Panama Canal.

Related Material

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Natchez Trace Collection Photographs, Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin

Detailed Description of the Collection