There were a couple of votes last week for a younger Jefferson Davis in response to the unknown 19th Century electro portrait submitted by Christopher Eimer which it may or may not be... but this past week I received my own lesson in Davisology, albeit on the other end of the age spectrum (which may be of tangential interest to the discussion).

Last week on eBay I listed an early sepia celluloid pinback commemorating the Mississippi Division Confederate Reunion held in Jackson, Miss. in 1903 that I acquired in a major Mississippi - Louisiana collection that I purchased ten years ago. The pin featured an unidentified picture of an aging man that I did not recognize. Thinking locally, I searched all of the CSA generals that I could find that 1) commanded the Mississippi Division or commanded a unit that served in Mississippi, or 2) was native of Mississippi, and 3) survived the war to grow old enough (which greatly narrowed the field). The only somewhat close match to me was Braxton Bragg whom I offered as a potential candidate but I also asked to be enlightened if anyone knew.

The South immediately rose again and informed me (in force) that the image is the last known photo of Jefferson Davis, circa 1898 or so which was also the year of his death. In 1903 his wife Winnie donated their home named Beauvior to the Sons Of Confederate Veterans to be used as a home for elderly CSA soldiers.

Every police procedural show on television has an expert that can construct or computerize an image of a person to show what they would look like 15 - 30 - 45 years later in life... possibly we could hire one of those many experts to do a reversal on the images we have of an older Prexie Jefferson Davis to see if we come up with Chris Eimer's electro bust?