PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION
The collection contains over 55,000 images acquired primarily as part of individual and
family papers, with approximately 2,000 depicting African Americans. The photographs date
from 1840s and exist in various formats. Most of
the images from planter papers reflect African Americans in their roles as house servants,
nannies, cooks, or field hands. One substantial collection is the Penn School photographs
(see related entry), which show all aspects of African-American student life from the 1860s
through the 1940s. The Penn School, located on the coast of South Carolina, was established
to educate freed slaves. Another important group is the Subregional Photographic Study, part
of the Howard Odum Papers (see related entry), which contains over 500 images. The study was
conducted in 1939 in conjunction with the Farm Security Administration to document all
aspects of life in several North Carolina counties. The study includes many images of African
Americans as farmers and merchants as well as images of family and small town life. The
Arthur Raper Papers (see related entry) contain a photographic study of Greene County,
Georgia, dating from the early 1940s. The over 200 images depict African Americans as tenant
farmers, school teachers, and students. Images of the elderly and number of rare photographs
of life on a chain gang are also part of the study.
