Notes
This cabinet card photograph is of Lucy Gray Marshall Henry (1832–1922), wife of Patrick Henry's grandson, William Wirt Henry (1831–1900).
Lucy Marshall was born on July 31, 1832, at Villeview, the home of her father, James Pulliam Marshall (1791–1883), in Charlotte Court House, Virginia. On November 8, 1854, Lucy married William Wirt Henry at Villeview. The couple had five children, including Lucy Gray Henry Harrison (1857–1944), who inherited Red Hill after her father's death. Lucy lived at Red Hill with her husband for several years before moving to Richmond, where she would die at Tucker Sanitarium on January 27, 1922.
This photograph was taken by eminent Civil War-era photographer Charles Richard Rees (1825–1914) in his studio in Petersburg, Virginia. Charles Rees was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to German immigrants. Charles started his career as a daguerreotypist in Cincinnati around 1850. In 1851, Charles and his brother Edwin opened a studio in Richmond, Virginia, near the Capitol. By 1853, Charles had relocated to the former studio of Harrison and Holmes at 289 Broadway, New York City, in the new photographic industry's epicenter.
After only a little more than two years in business, Charles moved from New York City. By 1859, Charles, with his brother Edwin, returned to the soon-to-be capital of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia, and again set up shop. They called their new studio "Rees' Steam Gallery." At the beginning of the Civil War, the influx of politicians and particularly soldiers meant a dramatic increase in business.
Charles soon joined the 19th Virginia Militia, a regiment of shopkeepers, railroad workers, and local firemen, who were used primarily as prison guards but also in extreme emergencies. As the war progressed, most retail shops in Richmond, including Rees' studio, eventually closed. As General Ulysses S. Grant advanced on Petersburg on April 3, 1863, Richmond was evacuated. General Richard Ewell ordered Richmond's warehouses burned. The fires soon got out of control and engulfed the entire business district, including the Rees Brothers' studio. However, almost as soon as the fires were put out, rebuilding began, and Rees was back in business at a new studio named "Rees & Bro." at 913 Main Street.
Then, in 1880, for reasons not entirely clear, Charles relocated his studio to Petersburg, Virginia, setting up shop at the J. E. Rockwell Gallery on Sycamore Street, where this photograph of Lucy Gray Henry was taken. Charles Rees died in 1914 at age 84 and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond with his family. The Rees studio would continue operating under his only surviving child, James Conway Rees, until the Great Depression.
The photograph passed into the hands of Lucy Henry's cousin by marriage, Margaret Henry Ottarson (1911–1981). Ottarson was a great-great-granddaughter of Patrick Henry and grew up at the nearby Windstone plantation. Her father, Dandridge Yuille "D.Y." Henry (1869–1950), inherited the estate from his father, Edward Winston Henry, Jr. (1840–1904), who inherited it from his father, Edward Winston Henry, Sr. (1794–1872), a son of Patrick Henry.
This photograph, along with the other items in the 2024.9 and 2023.24 accessions, were in Ottarson's Nashville, Tennessee, house when she sold it to her friend, Pamela Wood Kirchner. Kirchner gifted this photograph to PHMF on July 21, 2024.