The eBay seller of this 1800s African American photograph album
says, "I recently obtained this item from a local man in reply to my newspaper ad wanting to buy old stuff. In asking about it, he told me that many years ago he accepted this old photo album as partial payment exchange for some work done on his home. The man who had it told him it came from a local Cumberland County, Virginia, White Family who had a live-in Black "Mammy" maid who took care of the White Families children, and the lady liked the Black woman so much, she paid to have her and members of her family photographed and presented the "Mammy" with the album. The White ladies photograph is at the end of the album. Sadly, there is no writing, no markings anywhere in the album, so we don't know who the people are or the time frame of the photographs. However, from studying the period clothing, I get a sense that this album dates from post Civil War, circa 1870's to perhaps 1880's."
According to the listing, the album is in rather rough shape, no doubt well viewed over the generations. There are fourteen thick, board pages, or leaves, comprising the album and each leaf has a vignette cut-out hole that can contain up to two photos(back-to-back), so mind you, many leaves have only one photo or none. Even though the album can hold up to 28 photos, again, there are 13 photos in the album.
"Albums like this are very hard to come by and this album represents an insight into post-Civil War Virginia family photography," the seller concludes.
