I found this photo stuck in the back of a decaying album of CDVs. Depending on your point of view, General Robert E. Lee symbolizes the valor and honor of the South, or its struggle to embrace social change and progression. Living in Virginia, stumbling across his name or image is a common occurrence. So much so, that it’s easy to overlook a valuable find.
This CDV fell out of the back of a decaying photo album I picked up at an auction a few years ago. I looked it over and paid it no mind, sticking it in a folder for the past few years.
I was reintroduced to it yesterday, when I started looking for ephemera to sell in my store.
It’s pretty unassuming actually. A 3.5 x 4 inch card with an oval paper photo of General Lee pasted in the center. The edges are creased and worn, and the photo has faded and yellowed. Upon first glance it looked like some cheap cigarette card.
I flipped it over and took a look at the back!
There it was, stamped in small hard to read type:
Vannerson
Photographic Artist
No. 77 Main Street
Richmond, Virginia
Curious, I ran the CDV through Google Lens. Up popped the following match from the Library of Congress:
The photographer is Julian Vannerson. He’s considered to be one of the Civil War era’s iconic photographers. A little more Google digging and I found that he had a Richmond studio at 77 Main Street from 1861 – 1867. Lee was a repeat subject for Vannerson, and often reprinted his portraits and sold them as CDVs, trade cards and framed images & prints.