ne afternoon in the fall of 1994, two men came into the front lobby of the Virginia Historical Society with something to show Dr. James C. Kelly, the society’s assistant director for museums. Unsolicited requests to come in and show objects to staff members are common occurrences at the VHS. Sometimes they result in desirable additions to the collection, sometimes not. Kelly escorted the men to the rare book room where they chatted for a few minutes. Then one of them opened the suitcase. It took little time for Kelly to realize the contents were extraordinary. He excused himself and went across the hall to bring in the historical society’s director, Charles F. Bryan, Jr. After exchanging pleasantries, Bryan watched as one of the men began turning the leaves of the albums. He was stunned to see page after page of detailed watercolor sketches and intricate, hand-drawn maps. In all, the four albums contained a remarkable collection of more than 400 images, most of which portrayed views of Virginia during the Civil War, though some depicted Confederate prison camps, including the most notorious at Andersonville, Georgia. They were all created by a Union soldier named Robert Knox Sneden, a map maker in the Army of the Potomac.

       Sneden was a mystery. The man with the suitcase said the albums had been in his family’s Connecticut bank vault for sixty years. He had approached the other visitor, a dealer in southern artwork, to help him sell the collection for a substantial sum. Despite limited information about the artist, and despite the large price tag, Bryan and Kelly knew the drawings were important. Bryan also knew the society did not have the resources to purchase them. Fortunately, two benefactors came forward to make the purchase possible, and the Sneden images now form one of the premier treasures in the historical society’s collections.