Studio portrait of three identified men in an unusual staged composition taken by photographer Brown of Farmville, Virginia. The image presents Charlie Davis, Eddie Scruggs, and Mr. Burton, who is noted in pencil on the verso as the mayor of Farmville. At the center of the group stands Eddie Scruggs, a young African American man holding a tin pail and a fowl, while balancing a large white ceramic pitcher on his head. On either side, Davis and Burton, both white men in formal attire, face Scruggs with postures suggestive of interaction or transaction, one holding what appears to be an envelope.

The image reads as a deliberately constructed tableau, with carefully placed props and individuals hinting at deeper narrative or symbolic content. The pitcher balanced on Scruggs’ head introduces an element of performance or satire, possibly referencing social hierarchy, rural labor, or localized civic commentary. Likely taken in the late nineteenth century, the photograph documents a rare interracial grouping in a formal setting, captured within a painted studio backdrop evoking an idyllic pastoral landscape.

The inclusion of names and the reference to a political role for Mr. Burton adds further historic resonance, situating the portrait within the social and civic fabric of postbellum Farmville. The image invites close reading both as a cultural artifact and as an example of southern vernacular studio photography that may contain subtle commentary on race, class, and power.