Details
Creator M'Pherson and Oliver, photographer.
Contributor Seaver, Chandler, Jr.
Gordon, associated name.
McAllister, John A., 1822-1896, collector.
McAllister & Brother, publisher.
Title [The scourged back] [graphic].
Publisher [Philadelphia] : [McAllister & Brother]
Publisher PA. Philadelphia. 1863
Date [ca. 1863]
Physical Description 2 photographs : albumen print on card mount ; mount 10 x 7 cm (4 x 2.5 in.) (carte de visite format)
Description Three-quarter length portrait showing the severely scarred back of the former enslaved and Union soldier, Peter, also known as Gordon, taken during a medical examination in Louisiana and sent to the Surgeon General of Massachusetts. Peter is seated, and with his back to the camera. His head is turned left and he holds his left hand on his lef hip. He wears a goatee and his hair is in tight curls.
Notes Image reproduced as wood engraving with accompanying article in Harper's weekly, July 4, 1863, p. 429. (LCP **Per H, 1863.) Name of photographer supplied by article.
Title and publication information supplied by William Darrah's Cartes-de-visite in nineteenth century photography (Gettysburg: William C. Darrah, 1981), p. 148.
One of three variant photographs depicting Peter posed with his back to the camera.
Manuscript note in modern hand on verso of P.8925.4 attributes copy to publisher C. Seaver, Jr.: "Gordon" by C. Seaver, Jr. Seaver, Jr., a Boston photographer, published the carte-de-visite in support of the abolitionist movement.
5786.F.157c originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of Civil War Miscellanies. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886.
P.8925.4 accessioned 1982, found in collection.
Recent scholarship has shown the identity of the man photographed in "The Scourged Back" to be a man named Peter, not Gordon. See David Silkenat, "'A Typical Negro': Gordon, Peter, Vincent Colyer, and the the story behind slavery's most famous photograph," American Nineteenth Century History 15, no. 2 (2014): 169-186. Copy in LCP Graphic Arts Department Research file - Peter.
Description revised 2025.
Access points revised 2025.
Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Subject Peter -- Portraits.
African American men -- Portraits.
African American soldiers -- Portraits.
Freedmen -- United States.
Scars.
Enslaved persons -- Punishment & torture.
Whipping -- United States.
Enslaved men -- United States.
Free men -- United States -- Civil War, 1861-1865.
Geographic subject United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Participation, African American.
Genre Albumen prints -- 1860-1870.
Anti-slavery photographic prints -- 1860-1870.
Cartes de visite -- 1860-1870.
Portrait photographs -- 1860-1870.
Printer McAllister & Brother, publisher.
Provenance McAllister, John A., (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| cdv portraits - sitter - Peter [5786.F.157c; P.8925.4]
Accession number 5786.F.157c
P.8925.4