secretaryofstate

There seem to be a lot of grey-eyed people in this collection. I didn't even know it was a real eye color, I've never seen a driver's license describe someone as grey eyed, and I've carded people at big events. A European thing? Were they persecuted by the law?

Grey eyes are now more commonly viewed as light blue/green colours, but they are perhaps more common in Europe then anywhere else. These criminals were convicted of a crime specified in section 20 of the Prevention of Crimes Act, 1871 and reported to the Secretary of State [Home Secretary] as being imprisoned in Newcastle Gaol between December 1871 - December 1873.

I think the eye color description is mistaken... It's more of a sepia color

My mother (Scots-Irish heritage - born here in 1929) had grey eyes. No blue or green - just grey.

I put gray on my driver's license :)

"Frank Lyon Polk (September 13, 1871–February 7, 1943) was a prominent lawyer and a name partner of the law firm today known as Davis Polk & Wardwell. He graduated from Yale College[1] (B.A., 1894) and Columbia University Law School[1] (LL.D., 1897). He was a member of Scroll and Key Society. Polk served on a variety of New York City boards and commissions. He served in the United States Department of State as Counselor (1915–1919), Acting Secretary of State (1920), and Under Secretary of State (1919–1920). Polk headed the American Commission to Negotiate Peace (1919) and managed the 1924 Democratic presidential convention campaign of John W. Davis, another name partner of the firm." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Polk

wow, stunning.

se parece a mi abuelo Valentin

In April, 1914, Polk, who was serving as Corporation Counsel in the administration of New York City Mayor John Purroy Mitchel, was wounded in the mouth by a bullet fired by Michael P. Mahoney, a would-be assassin, as the officials rode together in an open car. The bullet, probably intended for Mitchel, missed him and struck Polk instead. New York Times story, April 20, 1914: query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A06E2DB113FE6...

William Sulzer was the Governor of New York. The only governor from that state to be impeached & removed from office. He kinda looks like Lon Chaney in "The Phantom of the Opera" in this picture: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sulzer Philander C. Knox was Secretary of State under Teddy Roosevelt: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philander_C._Knox

current usage: phi·lan·der (fĭ-lān'dər) To carry on a sexual affair, especially an extramarital affair, with a woman one cannot or does not intend to marry. Used of a man. To engage in many love affairs, especially with a frivolous or casual attitude. Used of a man. [From philander, lover, from Philander, former literary name for a lover, from Greek philandros, loving or fond of men : phil-, philo-, philo- + anēr, andr-, man; see ner-2 in Indo-European roots.] phi·lan'der·er n.

Thanks captainslack for filling in the identity of these two men. Any idea when the photograph was taken?

The building behind them is the State, War and Navy building -- nowadays called the Executive Office Building, next to the White House. But of course, folks at the LOC know that already . . . .

Captainslack is incorrect about Knox: he was Secretary of State under Taft (1909-1913), not Roosevelt. Sulzer was Governor of New York for only a part of the year 1913, but he was in Congress for several years before that. This picture could have been taken while he was in Washington as a Congress Person.