Mar 24, 2022 - Sale 2598
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Sale 2598 - Lot 62

Price Realized: $ 32,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
(SLAVERY & ABOLITION.) McPherson & Oliver; photographers. [The Scourged Back.] Albumen photograph, 3 1/2 x 2 inches, on original mount with photographer backmark; minor wear. Baton Rouge, LA, circa 1863
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One of the most iconic images of slavery. After repeated beating and whippings at a Louisiana plantation, Gordon escaped from slavery and made his way to a Union camp at Baton Rouge, where he joined the army as a private. A camp photographer took a series of photographs which graphically demonstrated the brutality he had endured. The present photograph was the best known. It was engraved for the 4 July 1863 issue of Harper's Weekly, where it ran over the caption "Gordon Under Medical Inspection." This example is on the original photographers' mount.