C1864-5. By W.F. Larrabee, Artist. The photo measures 14.75" x 9.75", and features a frontal side-view of the hotel from a distance of some twenty to twenty five yards. Among the figures visible standing on the hotel porch are a number of blacks, standing to the left, including one apparently in military uniform. Three women stand among two men to the right. Although the image is somewhat dim and obscures the size of the hotel complex lying to the rear, its sign is legible and the personal features of its front porch loungers quite discernable.

Fortress Monroe sits in Virginia's Hampton Roads guarding the entrance to the James River leading to Richmond. The Hygeia Hotel was built adjacent to the Fort in 1822, taking its name from the Greek Goddess of health. It was quite fashionable and in the years leading up to the Civil War entertained guests such as Henry Clay, John Tyler, and Edgar Allen Poe, and entertained many more during the war itself.