These portraits create a mystery that we have not been able to solve.

The Holsinger Studio's records tell us that both were commissioned by Daniel Brown. He may be the person pictured in one or both of the portraits.

Our research indicates that there was only one Daniel Brown in Charlottesville and Albemarle County who was of the right approximate age to be the man or men in the portraits.

Brown was born c. 1900 to Henry and Lizzie Brown, a laborer and washerwoman, who lived on McKee's Row—a downtown Charlottesville block that was inhabited by a multi-racial community of the poor.

Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville combined to demolish the block to make room for a statue of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson that stood next to the courthouse until in 2021.

Brown served in the U.S. Army, during World War I, and later worked in Charlottesville as a janitor and taxi driver. He died in 1989.