African American Studies  Tags: african american  

Michael Francis Blake Photographs: 117 photographs of men, women, and children taken between 1912-1934 by Blake who opened one of the first African-American photography studios in Charleston, S.C.

Photos

African American Women: Images and transcripts form three digital collections: Hannah Valentine and Lethe Jackson Slave Letters, 1837-1838; Vilet Lester Slave Letter, 1857; and Elizabeth Johnson Harris: Life Story, 1867-1923.

Behind the Veil: African Americans Tell About Life in the Jim Crow South: Images and audio clips excerpted from the book, Remembering Jim Crow (New York: New Press/Lyndhurst Books of the Center for Documentary Studies of Duke University : Distributed by W.W. Norton & Co., c2001).

Digital Durham: Primary sources documenting the economic, social, cultural, and political history of Durham, N.C., from the 1870s through the 1920s.

Slavery, Abolition, and Social Justice (Duke access only): Digital collection documents key aspects of the history of slavery worldwide over six centuries. Content from the John Hope Franklin Collection of African and African American Documentation at Duke University, as well as several other North American and European libraries.

Advertising Collection, 19th And 20th Century. 874 Items.
Collection contains trade cards, leaflets, catalogues, and broadsides grouped by products such as agriculture, food, sewing, books, furniture, machinery, and railroads. Stereotypical images of black women as domestics, earth mothers, and laborers can be found throughout.

Michael Francis Blake Papers, Ca. 1912-1934. 117 Items & 1 Volume. Charleston, South Carolina.
Photographs of Michael Francis Blake (d. 1934) a black photographer in Charleston, South Carolina who operated his studio for at least 22 years. He was Charleston's first, and for many years only, black photographer. The subject of his photographs are black women, men and children. Notable is a photo of a woman dressed in man's clothing, and a group photo of ten young nurses, probably students at the Hospital Training School for Nurses at Charleston, a black institution.

Currency Collection, 1754-1944. 3,271 Items.
A miscellaneous collection of pieces of money, negotiable paper and instruments of debt from the United States, foreign countries, and private corporations. Images of African-American women and men at work appear on some southern state and bank currency.

Currier & Ives Collection, Ca. 1860-1900. Ca. 40 Items.
The collection contains framable prints that cover a range of "scenes of American life." A series from the late 1800s are depictions of black social life, intended to be humorous, that reflect gross stereotypes about black life.

Griffith J. Davis Papers, 1947-1989. Ca. 475 Items. Atlanta, Georgia.
Negatives, films, and videotapes by documentary photographer include several images of Charlotte Hawkins Brown and the Palmer Memorial Institute (ca. 1940s), a private junior and senior high school for blacks in Sedalia, North Carolina; and films taken in Liberia (ca. 1950s) documenting the country's people, industry, leaders, and rural life.

Duke University Center For Documentary Photography Photographs, 1983-1988. Ca. 1,650 Items. Durham, North Carolina.
Chiefly black and white photographs done by Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill students for class projects. Photographs focus on the social life and customs of communities mainly in North Carolina, and contain numerous projects on aspects of black community life.

David Goldblatt Photographs, 1960s. 258 Items. South Africa.
Black and white photographs taken in South Africa chiefly of people, both black and white, in a variety of work and social settings.

Negro Theatrical Collection, 19th Century. 10 Items.
This collection consists of advertisements for minstrel shows, play, and musicals. The casts are made up of black actresses and actors with few exceptions. The advertisements reveal the comedic role of blacks in theater and are primarily of interest for the images of actresses and actors.

Post Card Collection. Ca. 1910-Present. 10,000 Items.
The postcard collection consists of cards from the United States and countries around the world. They are indexed geographically and by subject matter, and images or portraits of black women can be found throughout. Such images range from work scenes, to pinups, to derogatorily "humorous" cards.

Sheet Music Collection, Ca. 1820-1940. 7,000 Items.
Sheet music of various musical styles the majority of which have cover illustrations. Many of the illustrations are images of black women, a significant number of those are stereotypical "Mammies" or "Jezebels".

J. Walter Thompson Company Papers, 1864-Present. 2,000+ Linear Feet. New York, N.Y.
Printed and manuscript materials, including some 2,000,000 items, half of which are manuscripts. The collection reflects this Company's pioneering role in the development of the advertising industry. It includes various images of African-Americans as depicted in advertisements throughout the 20th century. Of particular interest is the Aunt Jemima Pancake Flour account, 1917-1934. The development of duplicate ad campaigns in the 1950s, where identical ads with white and black images were placed in white and black magazines, is also documented.