One of the great things about this project is finding and discovering new things. And not just in the letters (although that’s great too). But in other places.

Recently I attended a online seminar about the 50 Genealogy Websites You Should Know. One of the websites they talked about and I’d never heard about was picryl.com. And I found Breckinridge images I’d never seen before.

Here are four images – official portraits – of the American delegation at the coronation of Nicholas II. These are from the Royal Collection Trust. I might have eventually found my way to the Royal Collection Trust and found these images but with picryl, I found them both and faster by searching C. R. Breckinridge.

Here is the caption from this photo…

Photogravure of the representatives of the United States of America present at the coronation of Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia. Clifton Rodes Breckinridge (1846-1932), the Minister to Russia, is seated in the middle of the group. His wife is sitting beside him to the left and Mrs Peirce is sitting to the right. Five men are standing in a row behind them with Admiral Selfridge (1836-1924), the naval envoy, standing second from the right wearing naval uniform. There is a painted wall and a curtain behind them and a patterned carpet on the floor. The coronation of Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia was held at the Kremlin on the 26 May 1896. The celebrations lasted for several weeks and were attended by many foreign royals and dignitaries.

And these two photos with their identification reference photos aren’t the only thing I found.

I also found a set of photographs of Mary Breckinridge (spelled Breckenridge) from the Bell Collection at the Library of Congress. I’d found the photos of KCB, CRB, Lees and even their dog a few years ago when LOC digitized the collection. And I wondered at the time where Mary was. Although the name is spelled wrong on the other Breckinridge family photos, Mary didn’t show up for some reason.