Ambrotype of pupils and teachers taken in the interior of Greensboro Female College, Greene County, Georgia, c.1860.

[USA : unidentified photographer, c.1860]. Quarter-plate ambrotype, 90 x 67 mm (sight); in an elliptical brass mat with ormolu preserver, housed in a leather case with embossed geometric design and ornamental gilt edges, with two working clasps; the ambrotype has some scattered marks but is otherwise in fine condition; the case is also in very good condition, with a small chip at one corner.

This important ambrotype came from the collection of Warwick Reeder (1950-2016), distinguished Australian art curator and passionate collector of nineteenth-century photography. When he purchased the ambrotype in the United States in the 1990s, its location had been identified by the previous owner as Greensboro Female College, based on where they had sourced the ambrotype in Georgia; we have no reason to doubt this information.

Greensboro Female College, in Georgia’s Greene County, was a prestigious antebellum academy for young women. It was built on Broad Street on the site of the Seals-Parker House, also known as Magnolia Manor, in 1854. During the Civil War the college was used as a hospital and following the war the John Cunningham House served as Union headquarters for the Provost Marshall. The college was destroyed by fire in 1872.