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AP story:
RALEIGH, N.C. — A haunting 150-year-old photo found in a North Carolina attic shows a young black child named John, barefoot and wearing ragged clothes, perched on a barrel next to another unidentified young boy.
Art historians believe it's an extremely rare Civil War-era photograph of children who were either slaves at the time or recently emancipated. . . .
New York collector Keya Morgan said he paid $30,000 for the photo album including the photo of the young boys and several family pictures and $20,000 for the sale document. Morgan said the deceased owner of the home where the photo was found was thought to be a descendant of John.
A portrait of slave children is rare, Morgan said.
"I buy stuff all the time, but this shocked me," he said.
What makes the picture an even more compelling find is that several art experts said it was created by the photography studio of Mathew Brady, a famous 19th-century photographer known for his portraits of historical figures such as President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Stapp said the photo was probably not taken by Brady himself but by Timothy O'Sullivan, one of Brady's apprentices. O'Sullivan took a multitude of photos depicting the carnage of the Civil War.
Read the rest: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ijneQuOSPKFWdnTgmKYGkm6Zxta...
Or maybe not:
http://cwmemory.com/2010/06/11/is-this-a-photograph-of-north-carolina-slaves/
Update on June 16: the debate about this image is ongoing:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/06/16/1503384/authenticity-of-photo-dis...
Update on July 2: Still more nay-saying:
http://michaelchardy.blogspot.com/2010/06/rare-photograph.html