Search

The vast majority of these images are early African American studio portraits and snapshots salvaged from personal photo albums. Formats in this subseries vary, but include black and white, sepia, stereographs, and a few metal color prints.

Donated in 2012 by Connie Beemer, the collection contains one 16mm reel. the black-and-white footage, the footage depicts family interactions between the parents and their children as well as the siblings among themselves, a visit to Jamestown Beach Event Park in Williamsburg, Virginia, African Americans working at a dockyard, cotton fields, around their families. The approximate footage date ranges from circa 1920 through 1939.

The vast majority of these photographs are of a 1958 event at Bishop College, a now-defunct Baptist College founded in Marhsall, Texas. The college later moved to Dallas before being closed in 1988 because of a financial scandal. The campus, purchased in 1990 by Comer S. Cottrell, is now the site of Paul Quinn College. Also included is an earlier collection of photographs of unidentified subjects in Marshall, Texas. Most of these are estimated to have been taken in the 1920's and are likely from the same personal collection as the Bishop College photographs. All photographs in this subseries are black and white.