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Rare 2.5 x 4 carte-de-visite photo of Robert E. Lee in a seated three-quarter-length pose wearing a dark suit and bow tie, signed vertically in ink, "R. E. Lee." The reverse, bearing the backstamp of the David H. Anderson Photographic Gallery of Richmond, Virginia, is annotated in the hand of the recipient, “From Gen. R. E. Lee, To Rebecca Gratz Minis.” In very good condition, with lightly trimmed edges, creases to the lower right corner area, and fading to both the image and the signature.
Rebecca Gratz Minis belonged to one of Georgia's oldest and most distinguished Jewish families. Her great-grandfather, Abraham Minis, arrived with the first group of Jewish settlers in Savannah in 1733, and her grandfather, Philip Minis, was a prominent Patriot merchant during the American Revolution. Named for the noted Philadelphia philanthropist Rebecca Gratz, she came from a family that became acquainted with Robert E. Lee during his service as a U.S. Army engineer overseeing the construction of Fort Pulaski in the 1830s, an association that continued into the Civil War.
The photograph was produced by Richmond photographer David H. Anderson from the celebrated portrait session he conducted with Lee in August 1869, approximately one year before the Confederate general's death.
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