Freeman's Hindman Offering Pre-Civil War Photograph of Interracial Couple – Perhaps the First
- by Announcement, Rare Book Hub staff
Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000
CINCINNATI – On October 26, Freeman’s | Hindman will bring to auction what is believed to be the first American photograph of a romantically posed interracial couple. 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 will be offered as a highlight of Freeman’s | Hindman’s auction of American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography in the company’s Cincinnati saleroom.
The sitters and the photographer remain a mystery. Extensive research by Freeman’s | Hindman has uncovered no historic record of the photograph. While the image was likely taken in a Northern state, hundreds, if not thousands, of daguerreotypists could have made the exposure.
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. Posed or not, the message of this extraordinary image is clear: in matters of the heart, white and black could be equal partners.
In the 1850s, 28 states and several Native American tribes had laws prohibiting not only interracial marriage, but interracial sex. Even in Northern states where abolitionism was strongest and interracial marriage was legal (New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and most of New England), interracial relationships were still viewed as taboo.
In the South, where slavery was the driving force of not only the economy but society itself, legal concerns would have been the least of the dangers facing the photographer and the sitters. Though sexual violence perpetrated by enslavers was widely accepted, “amalgamation” — the fear of “race mixing” — was used to justify the separation of whites and blacks and uphold enslavement as a necessary institution. It goes without saying that in such an environment both the sitters and photographer may have risked physical harm for this defiance of societal norms.
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. At a time when African Americans were often grotesquely exaggerated in prints and other media, Frederick Douglass, among others, recognized photography as a means of truth-telling, and a medium that could humanize African Americans. Douglass and his colleagues understood, however, that for a photograph to have real, lasting power, it needed to be widely circulated. 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; no trace of it exists in the historical record.
About Freeman’s | Hindman
Freeman’s | Hindman merged in 2023 to create a global team of experienced specialists who embrace tradition and innovation, creating a truly client-centric auction house. As America’s oldest auction house, Freeman’s has been an active part of the auction world and art market for nearly 220 years. Hindman, established in 1982, brings an expansive cross-country network, wealth of expertise, and strong relationships with fiduciaries nationwide to build a market-leading auctions and appraisals firm in Freeman’s | Hindman.
DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
Freeman’s | Hindman Western Manuscripts and Miniatures July 8, 2025
Freeman’s | Hindman Western Manuscripts and Miniatures July 8, 2025
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.