Figure 1 – Stereo image of Selina Gray and two of her daughters. (from the US National Park Service).

The United States National Park Service has unveiled a rare piece of Americana.  It has acquired, due to the attentive eye of a volunteer, who spotted the photograph of Figure 1 on an Ebay auction.  It is an image of Selina Gray.  Selina Gray was a slave on the estate owned by Robert E. Lee called Arlington House. At the start of the Civil War, when the Lee’s fled Arlington, Mrs. Lee entrusted  her personal slave, Selina Norris Gray, the keys to the mansion and put her in charge of protecting the great house.

Significantly, Lee’s wife was a descendant of George Washington’s wife Martha Custis. Marauding Union soldiers stole numerous heirlooms belonging to George Washington that were stored in the house. Gray confronted the soldiers demanding that they  not touch any of Mrs. Lee’s things. She then complained to Union Gen. Irvin McDowell, and it was McDowell who had the remaining artifacts shipped to the Patent Office for safekeeping and posterity.

Gray was freed in December 1862, a stipulation of the will of Mary Lee’s father. Ms. Gray and her family ultimately bought land near Arlington, growing and selling vegetables for a living.  She died in 1907.

As rare as it is to know the names of subjects in 19th century photographs; it is particularly rare when these people were slaves, who were considered merely the property of others.  The photograph is believed to have been taken outside the slave quarters at Arlington House.  The photograph, a stereo pair, was simply marked on the back as “Gen Lee’s Slaves Arlington Va,” but Park Service historians were able to identify Selina Gray from another photograph in their collection.  As ever the picture is a rare glimpse.  We contemplate the clothing for a moment.  But then we become haunted by the reality of what a terrible moment world it was for these people.