My Dad loved this picture and had it over his kitchen table. Popular evangelical blogger Justin Taylor recently did some research on the famous piece and here is what he discovered… (the rest of this post is word-for-word from Justin Taylor’s original post at The Gospel Coalition website): https://pastorbrett.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/the-story-behind-grace/ The name of the man in the picture is Charles Wilden, a peddler who sold various and assorted sundries, including foot-scrapers, door to door. another link: https://www.grandforksherald.com/news/man-famous-grace-photo-mystifies-historians
Ken, according to a link, in above post, the book on the table was a dictionary, that belonged to the photographer. The glasses on the book always resembled to me a cross, in a sort of way. Also, he was paid five dollars for the rights to the use of the photo. (See letter) Enstrom later tried to locate Wilden, to help him financially but was unable to find him.