In fact, the instructions accompanying the Library of Virginia's photograph direct that it be sent to Mary Bowser in Petersburg, so the photograph may not even be of a Mary Bowser, and by the late 19th century when the photograph that we own was was taken, the former spy would have been several decades older than the woman depicted in the photograph: as I so informed somebody from the espionage museum a couple of decades ago.

Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
[log in to unmask]

Please visit the Library of Virginia's Web site at http://www.lva.virginia.gov


-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Martha Katz-Hyman
Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2013 7:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VA-HIST] "Mary Bowser" and the Library of Virginia

Good story from The Atlantic on finding out that the image that has been associated with the Civil War spy, Mary Bowser, is, in fact, a 1900 image of another Mary Bowser who lived in Petersburg.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/06/the-spy-photo-that-fooled-npr-the-us-army-intelligence-center-and-me/277276/

Martha Katz-Hyman
Curator
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
Williamsburg, VA

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