Did we find George?

I traveled to Connecticut today to meet with the granddaughter of a cousin of George Sprague Barrows, known around here as Patient Number One. George's cousin was only a few years older than George, and, after George was abandoned by his father, George and the cousin were raised by George's aunt. This, of course, gave us reason to hope that descendants of George's cousin might have pictures of George.

The picture seen here is of Lavina Lovell (Sprague) Barrows, George's mother. Finding this picture is significant for two reasons.

First, her image will have a place in the movie, and we didn't have it before.

Second, because we know that she died in 1877 a few weeks after George was born, we know that the photo collection we're looking at spans all of George's lifetime -- it is not simply pictures from after he died.

Unfortunately, none of the photos in the collection are labeled as being George. All hope is not lost, though. Some of the unidentified photos have enough clues in them that we may be able to narrow some down as being George.

One unexpected find, shown below, is a postcard from George to his sister, Hattie, when he was at the sanatorium on the lake. George calls her by her nickname, Vinie, which was short for Lavina. This, of course, was their mother's name. It was also Hattie's middle name.

Unfortunately, on this occasion at least, George had a prodigious economy with words.

-Paul Parker