Natchezian Bill Stewart (1924-2005) carefully assembled and preserved a collection of 19th and early 20th century negatives and photographs taken in the Natchez area by his grandfather William Percy Stewart (1858-1928) and his great uncle, Robert Livingston Stewart (1854-1912), who made glass-plate photographs of Natchez in the 1870s to 1890s. In the 1960s, Bill began restoring the negatives and making new prints from them. Bill's father, R.P Stewart (1892- 1968) also photographed Natchez; however, very few of his nitrate negatives have survived.
The Stewart Collection also includes photographs by Henry D. Gurney, a successful businessman turned first-rate photographer who moved to Natchez from Massachusetts in 1851. The Gurney photographs were collected by Bill’s great uncle Robert Livingston Stewart and his great-grandfather, Robert Hill Stewart (1824-1899) of Natchez.
The family donated the Stewart Collection to the Mississippi Department of Archives & History.
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