Robert M. T. Hunter

Robert M. T. Hunter, a U.S. senator from Virginia from 1847 to 1861, is the subject of this photographic salt print published in McClees' Gallery of Photographic Portraits of the Senators, Representatives & Delegates of the Thirty-fifth Congress (1859). Hunter signed his name and his home state beneath his portrait. He previously served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1837–1843, 1845–1847), and as Speaker of the House (1839–1841). During the Civil War he served as a Confederate senator and, for a time, as the Confederate secretary of state.