The image was part of an ad for Edward's Drug Store in Leesburg, Virginia. The ad was in the June 7, 1956 issue a newspaper based in Purcellville, Virginia called The Blue Ridge Herald.
Of the image, Ivan Stang said "I suspect that this is a photo that predates the halftone drawing that became our trademark — taken back when Dobbs was a model, before he became so Slack-imbued that his presence fogged film. This is a truly a precious artifact…"
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the United States between 1929 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart as well as a detailed definition of "publication" for public art. Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (50 p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 p.m.a.), Mexico (100 p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.