While representing the University Library at a National Genealogical Society conference in California, Special Collection librarian and University Archivist Elizabeth Wells was approached by a man who casually mentioned that his great-grandfather helped to start Samford University. Not recognizing him, she glanced at his conference nametag and quickly realized his connection. He was Frederick Sterling Sherman, the great-grandson of Samuel Sterling Sherman. This man’s ancestor had been the first president of Howard College. Samford University began as Howard College in Marion, Alabama in 1841. As Wells and Sherman talked, he shared that he had preserved several family materials, including a handwritten autobiography, scrapbooks, and a photograph of Samuel Sterling Sherman taken when he was a young man. Wells invited him to visit the school his great-grandfather had helped to establish. In 2005, Frederick Sherman attended the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research, a conference hosted by the Samford University Library from 1965 until 2016. Frederick Sherman brought his great-grandfather’s materials with him. The prior chance meeting in California allowed Special Collection to build a relationship with the Sherman family, make copies of those family records, and ultimately a digital image of a young President Sherman.

Sherman was only 27 years old when he accepted the presidency of the new school, yet until this photograph came to light, the university’s primary portrait showed him much later in life. That earlier portrait, now displayed in the president’s home, was presented to the university by Sherman himself in 1886. It depicts him at the age of 71. The discovery of the earlier photograph not only enriches the historical record but also made possible the creation of a new formal portrait unveiled on campus in February 2026, giving the Samford community a clearer glimpse of Sherman as he would have appeared during his years as president.