Today’s mystery could be kind of tough. A reader sent along this shot, accompanied by a good story. The photo is in South Carolina, but that’s the only hint you’ll get. Send your guess to feedback@statehousereport.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.
Our previous Mystery Photo
Our Feb. 15 mystery, “Who’s this old guy?” was a Charles Fraser painting of South Carolina’s Henry Laurens that is on display at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston.
Laurens (1724-92), a South Carolinian who served as president of the Second Continental Congress, was the only patriot to have been imprisoned in the Tower of London during the Revolutionary War, writes Dale Rhodes of Richmond, Va.
Sleuth George Graf correctly identified the painting as being Laurens, but said the artist was John Singleton Copley. According to the Gibbes, its painting of Laurens is an example of an artist copying an artist. It said that Fraser likely never saw the original, but created his version from an engraving.
Laurens was one of the richest man in the colonies due to the slave trade, Graf shared. His firm, Austin & Laurens sold about 7,800 African men, women and children between 1751 and 1761, according to various sources. “Laurens was exchanged after the Battle of Yorktown for General Charles Cornwallis. Shortly thereafter he was instructed to join Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams as a member of the peace commission.”
Others who correctly identified Laurens were Frank Bouknight of Summerville; Don Clark of Hartsville; and Philip Cromer of Beaufort. Congratulations all!
Send us a mystery: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!
This is the old Mental Health Administative Building on Bull Street At it intersection with Elmwood Avenue. It now part of DHET.