A photographic montage contains portraits of 108 of the 132 members of the Virginia House of Delegates elected for the term that met in three sessions between December 6, 1871, and April 2, 1873. The name of each elected official is handwritten beneath his image. Portraits of thirteen Black members of the state legislature are positioned on the bottom row, from left to right: Peter Jacob Carter, Henry Cox, R. Hamilton, W. H. Patterson, Peter K. Jones, Rufus Sibb Jones, W. Gilliam, Henry Turpin, R. G. L. Paige, J. W. B. Matthews, Jesse Dungey, Joseph P. Evans, and Armistead S. Nickens. Some other Black elected officials are not included in the photographic montage—among them, John Freeman and Asa Coleman from Halifax County, and James F. Lipscomb from Cumberland County. Later group portraits of the General Assembly usually excluded Black members entirely.
This montage was created by C. R. Rees & Co., a photography firm in Richmond.
