Georgia Historical Society addresses bogus Civil War ironclad CSS Georgia photo

SAVANNAH — A man who donated a copy of what he said was a photo he took of a Civil War period photo of the CSS Georgia to the Georgia Historical Society has admitted he faked the photo, leading the Society to release a statement on it Monday.

John Potter, numerous news agencies have reported, has admitted the photo he created as a teen and donated to the Society in 1986 was a fake. The state historical group has never presented the photo as an authentic representation of the vessel that, while it never fired a shot, protected Savannah for two years before being abandoned and sunk when Gen. Sherman reached the port city in 1864. The Georgia wreckage, still submerged, is one of only five confirmed ironclads in existance, GHS officials say on their website.

This was the only purported image of the ironclad, showing a faded image of a ship matching some descriptions of the vessel, with smokestacks and gunports at center. A man in a hat appears in the right front of the picture, photographed from behind. There had been debate as to whether the photo, which is inside an old, worn, oval frame, was legitimate.

Officials with the Georgia Historical Society noted Monday that the Society had never presented the photo as a representation of an authentic picture of the Civil War vessel. In fact, one link to the photo on the Society’s webpage asks the visitor whether he or she thinks the photo is real.

“In 1986, the Georgia Historical Society (GHS) received an image from Mr. John Potter of a photograph taken of another photograph alleged to be the Confederate ironclad CSS Georgia that he discovered at a yard sale but was unable to purchase,” Georgia Historical Society President/CEO W. Todd Groce said Monday in a prepared statement. “Among the experts GHS consulted to authenticate the image, the conclusions were mixed, with some believing it to be an image of the CSS Georgia and others who believed it was not. With no clear evidence or consensus, the image was cataloged as ‘purported to be the CSS Georgia’ and not as an authentic photograph of the CSS Georgia.

“At no time since the image was given to the Society has the Georgia Historical Society claimed it to be an authentic reproduction of a period image. In fact, without provenance and with so many questions about the image, we chose to include it as part of an online educational resource for teachers to teach students about how to evaluate the authenticity of primary sources in research. …”

According to reports, Potter said his brother posed as the man in the photo, which news reports said was of a model Potter had created as a teenager.

Since reports surfaced over the weekend confirming the photo was a fake, officials with the GHS decided that a statement was necessary Monday, Patricia Meaghers, director of communications for the Society, said.

“We’d had several inquiries about it, so we thought it best to issue a statement,” she said.

Groce expressed disappointment that Potter perpetuated the hoax.

“On any given day, GHS receives donations of artifacts, documents and photographs from individuals, families and corporations who want to make sure that their papers are preserved for future generations of scholars, students and researchers,” Groce said. “We accept these gifts in good faith as the institution’s archivists did nearly 30 years ago with the purported image of the CSS Georgia.

“We now know, by Mr. Potter’s own words, that the image is not authentic. To be clear, GHS has never presented the image as an authenticated photograph of the CSS Georgia and (we) have maintained such in our records and online resources since the day that it arrived. It is still regrettable that Mr. Potter chose to perpetrate this hoax, but with clear evidence of the fraud we can now clearly label the photograph as inauthentic.”

The photo can be seen here at the Georgia Historical Society’s website.