Photograph of Pamela Bridgewater and Nelson Mandela

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A framed photograph of then Political Officer with the State Department Pamela E. Bridgewater shaking hands with then Deputy President of the African National Congress Nelson Mandela. Captured from the waist up, both Bridgewater and Mandela appear in profile, looking at each other while grasping each other’s right hands. Bridgewater wears a turquoise suit jacket and Mandela is in a grey suit jacket and tie. Behind the pair are two men in dark suits and red ties and a woman is partially visible behind Bridgewater. The man on the left is the United States Ambassador to South Africa at the time, William Lacy Swing. The photograph was taken in an interior room with high windows and white walls, with a map mounted on the wall in the background. On the verso is a very faded inscription of “best wishes” signed to Bridgewater from Mandela along with a typed adhesive label for the photographer, Peter M.

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