Conspirator's Portraits

[Pamela]

I don't attack anyone--Mary Surratt, or "others". I didn't insinuate about Schein, but yes, I thought someone had, in the minor way I mentioned, retouched a photo--not the foggiest idea who or when, and I didn't speculate in writing or in my mind, other than I thought it was not in long ago times. You are much more knowledgeable about any and all Mary photos than I. To be clear, I'm comparing a photo of Mary in Schein's book, dated 1851 (I know it appears elsewhere) with a photo of Mary in Weichmann's book, undated (and I know it appears elsewhere). The picture in Weichmann's book is an oval bust image, in Schein's a 3/4 showing arms, hands, waist, lap and bible. IMO, she's wearing the same bow, brooch and collar and dress in both.

I've just gone to BoothieBarn.com and in Dave's images of Mary the first three seem to show her wearing the same dress, collar, brooch and earrings but the heads look different in the first two, possibly a bit different in the third compared to the first. The third head has a slightly different tilt from the first, but the heads look the same otherwise. The caption for pic#1 says original photograph of Mary Surratt Source Dave Taylor. Pic#2 caption says, Mary Eugenia Surratt, image source Surratt Museum. The source for pic#3 is Huntington Library, Mary Eugenia Surratt.

Also, to be clear, I wonder about image #2 on BoothieBarn compared to pic#1.

I wasn't aware about suggestions that the War Dept altered a photo of Mary.

This is all JMO and I've said it before, I'm not a historian.

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Thanks for all your information, Dave. I saw your post after I posted.