19th C Portrait of Slave African American Black Ephemera Photography Farmville

Mounted on a 7"x9" card is the portrait of a woman named Suckey. The inscription bears her name, the year 1885, and her role as a nurse and "Mammy" to a woman named Mary. While this inscription confrms her servitude in a "post-slavery" United States, her evident age confirms her servitude in a pre-slavery United States, making her one of millions of human beings either born or trafficked into bondage. Yet with millions of our ancestors traded like livestock, so very few images of them exist. Please take the time to study the provided information to inform your interest in this piece. The bottom right hand corner of the card has the hand painted name of the studio that committed Suckey to some level of permanence. "Erambert's Studio" is a known photography studio that was based in Farmville, Virginia and founded by Charles H. Erambert, a Confederate veteran that established the studio after the war.

His work can be found in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum. The photograph was delicately removed from the frame it was in so that it could be studied further.

However, the back of the frame has an interesting inscription itself. Just below the large writing reads Photo made in Farmville, VA by known photographer-- Speed and Spencer family.

While research connecting these families to Suckey proved difficult, it is quite fascinating to have the names of all parties invollved in this tangible slice of America's Black History.

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