It was a puzzle that had apparently stumped everyone who’d seen it for over a century.

And Rebecca Torres intended to solve it.

The photograph had almost no identifying information.

The studio mark in the bottom corner read Jay Morrison and Sons Photographers Atlanta Gutpris a well-known establishment that operated between 1885 and 1903.

The clothing styles and photographic paper suggested a date between 1895 and 1899.

But there were no names, no written notations, nothing to identify who these people were.

Rebecca contacted the estate executive who donated the collection.

The photographs had belonged to Ernest Whitfield, a retired pharmacist who’d spent four decades collecting African-American historical materials before his death at age 93.

Uncle Ernest never cataloged most of it properly, his niece explained during their phone conversation.

He just collected whatever he could find.

Always said too much black history was being destroyed or thrown away, so he saved everything he could get his hands on.

Rebecca asked whether any documents, correspondents, or records might identify the families in the photographs.

The niece promised to search through remaining boxes before the estate auction.

3 weeks later, a package arrived at Duke.

Inside were a handwritten receipt, a studio appointment book, and a fragile envelope of customer correspondence.

The receipt dated October 12th, 1897 listed Washington family, six persons, formal sitting, four prints ordered, $8.

50 paid in full.

Washington, a surname, but no first names.

The appointment book was more revealing.

On October 12th, 1897, two RPM, Washington, proprietor, Auburn Avenue tailoring establishment, Family Portrait Commission.

Rebecca’s pulse quickened.

Auburn Avenue.

Continued on the next page