A woman bought wedding photos of a CIA agent for a song at auction: a fascinating story

You can find truly unique items at auctions without even realizing their value. For example, a pensioner recently bought rare wedding photos of CIA agent Harriet Galbraith for a song at a Lynchburg auction in Virginia.

Sandra Poindexter, 66, is a retired nurse. She loves to write novels and is an art enthusiast. It is not surprising that she was immediately attracted to the beautiful wedding portraits that were in a box of old photo frames. Details about the interesting discovery and the undercover love story were reported by the Washington Post.

The history of wedding photos

The photographs went for a song - Sandra Poindexter made a $5 bid and won. The portraits were so elegant and aesthetically pleasing that the pensioner decided to conduct her investigation and find the girl who posed for the camera.

Poindexter, by the way, regularly visits local auctions in search of needlework items, so she immediately realized the value of the find.

The wedding portraits were taken in 1959 by the famous photographer Bradford Bahrach. And in the photo, as it turned out, Harriet Galbraith is posing, not just a beautiful bride, but a CIA agent.

Poindexter's investigation, in the best traditions of our time, began with a search engine query. Then she posted the portraits in a local Facebook group and asked if anyone knew the woman or her family. On the back of one of the frames was a piece of masking tape with the name "Harriet Elizabeth Marshall (Galbraith)" written on it. Donna Reichard, a Lynchburg resident, came to the rescue and began searching for the women using the information and calling everyone on her list. In the end, the search was not in vain.

Harriet Galbraith had been searching for these photos for over 30 years and eventually gave up hope of finding them.

CIA agent

It turned out that the photo shows 21-year-old Harriet Galbraith. The incredible dress was designed by Christian Dior himself. The photographer Bradford Bakrach is also a famous personality who has worked with many high-ranking people, including US presidents.

The groom's name was William Galbraith Jr. They seemed to be a nice and pleasant couple of lovers, but they were actually... CIA agents. As real spies, the couple participated in operations in Morocco, Algeria, and Poland.

"It was extremely stressful, but we were serving our country and we wanted to do it," Galbraith recalls. The couple had two children together, one of whom, a daughter, died of meningitis when she was 16.

The Galbraiths retired to Matthews County and began painting. Harriet moved to San Antonio to be closer to her family after her husband died in 2016.