Description

Description: This stately original photograph features the nine United States Supreme Court Justices of the Waite Court. Chief Justice Morrison Waite is seated in the center of the photo and is flanked by Associate Justices Samuel Blatchford, Horace Gray, John M. Harlin, William B. Woods, Stanley Matthews, Stephen J. Field, Samuel F. Miller, and Joseph F. Bradley. The justices are all garbed in their judicial robes and wearing serious expressions on their faces. Both Horace Gray and Samuel Blatchford joined the Supreme Court in 1882, thus this photograph was taken between 1882 and 1888, the year Morrison Waite died.

There is a typed legend at the bottom edge of the photo, and the corresponding identifying numbers are scratched into the negative. 10″ x 13 7/8″. Item #P00157

Morrison Waite (1816-1888) was a member of the Ohio Senate and helped establish the Ohio Republican Party before he was nominated to be a Supreme Court Justice by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1874. The Waite Court presided during the end of the Reconstruction Era and played a role in expanding the rights of freedmen and protecting them from attacks by white-supremacy groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.

Condition: Three spots where someone has inked over the identifying numbers, light edge wear (including 1/4″ tear), otherwise good condition.