African American History Manuscript Collections in the Rubenstein Library

Chiefly single portraits of African-American adults, with a few images of children. Images document African-American life, particularly dress and hairstyles for various time periods in American history.

Collection consists of 60 small black-and-white photographs dating roughly from the 1930s to the 1950s, belonging to Amy Ashwood Garvey, feminist and activist who traveled extensively and lived in West Africa, where most if not all of these images originated.

Early 20th century photographs of African American family from the Ohio River valley. Primarily featured are the women in the family in a range of settings, from informal poses around the house to formal, and sometime, elaborate studio portraits.

Collection comprises an African-American family photograph album maintained by Henry Washington within a three ring binder between approximately 1940-1982. The photographs present the Washington family and its social networks in detail, with a focus on Boston's Roxbury neighborhood.

Collection comprises 42 photographs taken by James Van Der Zee, known for his portraits and documentation of daily life in Harlem, N.Y., especially during the Harlem Renaissance (1920s-1930s).

Kristin Bedford is a photographer based in Los Angeles. The 172 color photographs taken by Bedford from 2012 to 2018, derive from three projects: "Be Still: A Storefront Church in Durham," which consists of images of African American worshippers and their pastor in Durham, North Carolina; "The Perfect Picture," images from the multi-racial Peace Mission Movement religious community, founded by Father and Mother Divine in the 1930s, and the community's estate, Woodmont, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Collection comprises an M. Le Clear & Company black-and-white photograph portrait taken in their studio between 1865 and 1895. It is a 2.25" x 3.5" albumen three-quarter view vignette portrait, in which Frederick Douglass is looking directly at the camera, and is wearing a light-colored suit, dark vest, white shirt and a tie.

Michael Francis Blake was one of Charleston, South Carolina's first African American studio photographers. Collection consists of 118 photographs, mostly studio portraits taken by Michael Francis Blake from about 1912 to 1934, with some outdoor settings.

The Picture File is a large and diverse collection of visual materials ranging from the 17th through the 20th centuries. The bulk of the images in the collection date from the early 1800s through the 1950s.

Collection comprises a photograph album created by Young between 1940 and 1953, with emphasis on the years 1948-1952. There are 633 black-and-white photographs taken by Young, their sizes ranging from 2 x 2.25 inches to 8 x 10 inches.

Collection consists chiefly of 277 black-and-white photographs in sizes ranging from 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches to 16 x 20 inches, taken by SNCC photographers during Southern civil rights campaigns from 1963-1965. A selection of these prints was used for the first major SNCC photography exhibit, curated by Betty Brown and George Love, which opened in New York City in July 1965 and was titled "NOW."

Collection comprises the photographic work of African American photographer, sculptor, and professor of art William J. Anderson, from his earliest years as an art student in the early 1960s, to the late 2000s. Fifty-one large black-and-white gelatin silver prints are accompanied by over 500 negatives spanning his career, as well as contact sheets, slides, and smaller photographs in black-and-white and in color.