My cheap android phone only can do so much.

I wasn't sure until I did a preview. iPhone will let you copy the link to a picture.Sometimes it works.

Mother saved it? Poppa saved it? Someone gove it to the young miss?

So much to wonder about

"The Library of Congress has a huge collection that was once a pretty powerful exhibit. It showed parents grandparents and children cross the south in the 1860s and 70s. There were obvious questionable lines of paternity reflected in the photographs of very loving families."

Maybe this one was part of that collection. The Library of Congress is a vast repository of untold American history.

Interestingly, these seem to show that red "rouge" (?) was applied to both subjects' cheeks in the black & white photo/tintype.

The oldest good link I can find with TinEye is this 2013 Tumbler post:

https://joaoalvimcortes.tumblr.com/post/39779207893/tuesday-johnson-ca-1870s-hand-tinted

Unknown
Untitled [African-American man and girl]
1870s
photograph | tintype
Not currently on view in the museum
Untitled [African-American man and girl]

https://web.archive.org/web/20121127064701im_/

3 1/8 in. x 4 1/8 in. (7.94 cm x 10.48 cm)
Acquired 1994
Collection SFMOMA
Foto Forum purchase
94.521

is crucial to the truth telling America must commit to about itself, warts and all.

I wish we knew more about about it.

The

Thank you for sharing this image.