2 1/8 x 3 3/4 in. CDV on cardstock mount (light spotting/soiling throughout, upper right corner of image with crease and small spot of loss, discoloration to bottom corners of mount). Ink identification on mount recto, "Hon. H.R. Revels," Brady's imprint on verso. The vignetted bust portrait features Revels in profile, wearing a suit jacket.

Hiram Rhodes Revels (1827-1901) was born a free person of color in North Carolina before his ordination by the AME church in 1845. He was a preacher until the Civil War began and served as an army chaplain for an African American regiment. Revels settled in Mississippi in 1866 and got involved in state politics, eventually becoming the first African American United States senator in 1870. He was known as a gifted orator and a political moderate who favored equal rights for African Americans and amnesty for the former Confederates. The known photographs of Senator Revels, such as the ones in the Brady-Handy Collection at the Library of Congress, were taken by Mathew Brady in Washington DC during his term as senator. This image was also taken by Brady, but on a different date.