Letter by David Woodbury
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APPRAISER:
Charles, what have you brought here this, that looks very interesting?
GUEST:
Well, this is a letter by Civil War photographer David Woodbury-- he worked...
APPRAISER:
I know the name.
GUEST:
He worked for Matthew Brady, and is often given credit as a photographer in the war. And this is his personal letter of his account of actually taking a picture at the Gettysburg Address, which has been a mystery since the photo was taken.
APPRAISER:
Well, now, I know that there's only one known photograph of the Gettysburg Address, and nobody's known who ever took this picture.
GUEST:
That's corr, that's...
APPRAISER:
And you say you have the evidence that he did it?
GUEST:
This is the evidence where Josephine Cobb find the, found the negative in the National Archives. And this letter confirms that he was at Gettysburg, and he's the one that actually took this famous photograph.
APPRAISER:
Wow, that's an, that's an amazing story. Can we look at the letter?
GUEST:
Absolutely.
APPRAISER:
So let's see, I can, just says, Washington, November 23, 1863, and he's writing, "Dear sister..."
GUEST:
And this, and this is his sister.
APPRAISER:
That's a picture of his sister, okay.
GUEST:
Right. And here's David Woodbury.
APPRAISER:
"I went to Gettysburg on the 19th with Mr. Berger." That would be Anthony Berger.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Who was another of Brady's operators, right?
GUEST:
Right, and he was a superintendent, I think, of the Washington Gallery.
APPRAISER:
And he says, "the superintendent of the gallery." "Here we made some pictures of the crowd in procession." So this is a letter...
GUEST:
That...
APPRAISER:
...that verifies who took...
GUEST:
Only... .
APPRAISER:
..the only known photograph of the Gettysburg Address.
GUEST:
Right, and this picture of the soldiers marching down the street at Gettysburg. And those pictures are also in the National Archives that you can get on the website. And it would be wonderful that he finally gets credit for taking this key historic picture.
APPRAISER:
I would guess-- you might not agree with me-- but I would think a good conservative auction estimate for this letter would be $10,000 to $15,000.
GUEST:
Okay, that's not too bad.
APPRAISER:
For that letter.
GUEST:
For, just for the letter.
APPRAISER:
Just for...
GUEST:
Okay, right.
APPRAISER:
Well, and maybe the photographs of Woodbury, too. Because they really are all part of the story.
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