The Voice of Nettie Mudd

[bob_summers]

(10-09-2012 09:37 AM)Dave Taylor Wrote:  I third the compliments towards Bob Summers and his impeccable site. His website and books are such wonderful references containing seemingly all of the primary sources relating to Dr. Mudd. I wish others would take the time to create similar websites of primary information about the other conspirators.

Mr. Summers also helped me extensively revise a blog post I had written about Dr. Mudd's attempted escape from Fort Jefferson. One of these days the revised version is supposed to be in the Courier.

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(10-09-2012 09:27 AM)Laurie Verge Wrote:  This question is for Bob Summers: Several of us have been approached over the years with photos purporting to be of Dr. Mudd in his later years. Some come very close to resembling him; but without proper provenance, we cannot be sure.

Do you know of any post-Ft. Jefferson photos taken of Dr. Sam?

I'm guessing you are referring to this image, Laurie.

I, too, find it strange that while so many of Dr. Mudd's items surivived, there are only two known images of him. Did Nettie lose other photographs when she gave them to her employer? Also, if the one image of Dr. Mudd sitting is him in the Fort Jefferson carpentry shop, how did he get a picture taken in prison?

Dave, the photos Nettie lost are detailed in this newspaper article.

I suspect the photo of Dr. Mudd was the Brady Studio photo we are already familiar with.

I have always wondered about the eight Dry Tortugas pictures that Nettie refers to in the newspaper article. We know she asked Arnold for these for her 1906 book, but none were published in it, and Arnold's 1902 series of articles in the Baltimore American didn't print them either. And what possessed Arnold to return to the Dry Tortugas in 1898 anyway, if he really did?