Historic Pre-Civil War Photograph of an Interracial Couple to Auction

What is believed to be the first American photograph of a romantically posed interracial couple will go under the hammer at Freeman’s | Hindman on October 26.

The anonymous ninth plate daguerreotype taken around 1850-1855 depicts a white woman and an African American or mixed-race man in an amorous pose. The image is one of the highlights of Freeman’s | Hindman’s auction of American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography in the company’s Cincinnati saleroom and has an estimate of $30,000 - $50,000.

The sitters and the photographer remain a mystery. Extensive research by Freeman’s | Hindman has uncovered no historic record of the photograph, although they believe the image was probably taken in a Northern state.

"In a world where racial stereotypes denied the humanity of African Americans and the notion that they were capable of the same emotions as white Americans, this image offers a striking rebuttal," said a spokesperson for the auction house. "Posed or not, the message of this extraordinary image is clear - in matters of the heart, white and black could be equal partners. This image was likely meant to be a political statement. Photography was one of the abolitionists’ most powerful tools in not only fighting the evil of slavery, but in proving the equality of the races."

As a unique image, the daguerreotype was unsuited to widespread dissemination and could only be exposed to a wider audience through an engraving. If this image was taken for abolitionist propaganda it seems to have never been engraved since no trace of it exists in the historical record.