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Phelps-Stokes Fund photograph collection

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Collection Data

Description
Collection depicts some of the activities and projects sponsored by the Phelps-Stokes Fund related to the advancement of educational opportunities for African Americans and Africans, mainly during the period from the mid-1910s to the 1950s. Some educational programs, ceremonies and conferences held during the 1960s are depicted; activities after the 1960s are not depicted. Collection consists of studio portraits of Phelps-Stokes officials, educators, students, and young children; candid portraits of fund officials and workers, and public figures associated with the fund; group portraits of fund officials and trustees, graduation classes, students, instructors, families, clergy, and African villagers; and views of class instruction and workshops, conferences, academic and public events, exteriors of school buildings, urban and rural dwellings and structures, farmlands, tropical landscapes, aerial views of property, and some interior views of office and academic buildings. A series of copy negatives of images from the 1977 photographic portfolio "How the Other Half Still Lives: a Petition for the Ill-Housed of New York City to the President of the United States" is also included.The Officials and public figures series consists of studio and group portraits, candid shots and views of individuals who were officials or associated with the Phelps-Stokes Fund. Among these individuals include education directors Thomas Jesse Jones (1917-1946) and Channing Tobias (1946-1953), president Frederick D. Patterson (1953-1969), educator James E.K. Aggrey, Board of Trustee member Emory Ross, and the Fund's benefactor Caroline Phelps Stokes (depicted circa 1900). Also depicted are Tobias with Board members Ross and Ralph Bunche (1950), a group portrait of the Board of Trustees (1952); views of a Phelps-Stokes Fund dinner honoring Tobias and Patterson, held at the Plaza-Savoy Hotel, New York City (1954); and group portraits and views of Patterson being honored at Lane College, Jackson, Tennessee (1968).The United States - Activities and projects series depicts Phelps-Stokes Fund supported schools, educational programs, conferences, and a field survey of African American schools, mainly in the American South from the 1910s to the late 1960s. The series consists of individual and group portraits of students, instructors and clergy; and views of classes and workshops, construction projects, rural living conditions, and educational gatherings. Of note is a series of images, some of which appeared in "Negro Education: a Study of the Private and Higher Schools for Colored People in the United States" (1917), published by the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, which depicts the living conditions and the state of local school infrastructures for African Americans living in Montgomery County, Alabama (circa 1913-1915).Also included are views of a Home Missions Council sponsored workshop, in Tuskegee, Alabama (1948), in which both clergy and laypersons are learning home construction skills; and views of the Phelps-Stokes Fund Intercollegiate Assembly on Automation and Technological Change, in Atlanta, Georgia (1967), with students and instructors attending classroom sessions. Also of note are studio portraits of African exchange students, mainly from Nigeria, who have graduated from American campuses (circa 1942); and views of Nigerian exchange students visiting the New York Stock Exchange and the SCM Corporation office machines headquarters in New York City (1965).The Africa - Activities and projects series depicts Phelps-Stokes Fund supported schools, educational programs, construction projects, and a field survey of mission schools, primarily in the nation of Liberia from the mid-1920s to the 1950s. Some schools in South Africa and Sierra Leone, and a hospital in Nigeria are also depicted. The series consists of individual and group portraits of educators, families, students, African villagers and dignitaries; and views of classes and workshops, school activities and events, government and educational facilities, dwellings, and tropical and rural landscapes. Of note is a series of page-mounted images entitled "Education and Missions in Liberia: a Preliminary Survey of the Field for the Information of Board Members, 1926," conducted by James L. Sibley for the American Advisory Committee on Education in Liberia, which depicts the conditions at Christian mission schools in Liberia and Sierra Leone and the local Liberians they were meant to serve.Also included is the Booker Washington Institute, in Kakata, Liberia, from 1932 to 1958, depicting Institute administrators and their families, school structures, school life, and visiting dignitaries. Also of note are views of library personnel and patrons at the United States Information Service Library, in Monrovia, during a visit by Liberian President William V.S.Tubman and the American Ambassador to Liberia, Edward Dudley (1949).
Names
Phelps-Stokes Fund (Collector)
Bachrach, Fabian, 1917-2010 (Photographer)
Beals, A. Tennyson (Photographer)
Davis, Griffith J., 1923-1993 (Photographer)
Ross, Emory (Photographer)
Rupel, Claude (Photographer)
Singh, Willie M. (Photographer)
Blackstone Studios (New York, N.Y.) (Photographer)
Continental Photo Service (New York, N.Y.) (Photographer)
Denis Garthorne & Keartland (Johannesburg, South Africa) (Photographer)
Frank O. Roberts Studio (Nashville, Tenn.) (Photographer)
Pach Brothers (Photographer)
Tresslar's Studio (Montgomery, Ala.) (Photographer)
Dates / Origin
Date Created: 1913 - 1968 (Inferred)
Library locations
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division
Shelf locator: Sc Photo Phelps-Stokes Fund Collection
Topics
Aggrey, James Emman Kwegyir, 1875-1927
Jones, Thomas Jesse, 1873-1950
Patterson, Frederick D. (Frederick Douglass), 1901-1988
Ross, Emory
Stokes, Caroline Phelps, 1854-1909
Tobias, Channing H
Tubman, William V. S., 1895-1971
Phelps-Stokes Fund
Booker Washington Institute of Liberia
Home Missions Council of North America
United States Information Service (Monrovia, Liberia) -- Library
African Americans -- Education
African students -- United States
Education -- Liberia
Education -- Africa
Education -- Southern States
School buildings -- Liberia
School buildings -- Alabama -- Montgomery County
Classes (Groups of students) -- Southern States
Classes (Groups of students) -- Liberia
Classes (Groups of students) -- South Africa
Meetings -- United States
African Americans -- Housing
Genres
Portrait photographs
Group portraits
Portraits
Photographs
Notes
Content: Title taken from Phelps-Stokes Fund Records.
Content: Some photographs bear photograph's or photography studio's hand stamp on verso; some items bear photographer's blind stamp; some items bear photographer's name on recto; some mounted items bear photographer's name printed on mount recto.
Content: Some items bear handwritten captions on verso and/or recto; some items have typewritten or printed caption labels attached to verso or recto; some items bear printed captions on verso; some items are accompanied by typewritten captions on note cards.
Content: Some items are mounted; some items are stapled to sheets of paper bearing captions; some items that were used for a photographic survey are mounted to sheets of paper bearing handwritten captions. Some mounted items have typewritten caption labels attached to mount recto.
Content: Some snapshots are assembled as photo montages; some items bear inscriptions; some items are cropped, some items are duplicates.
Content: Collection contains work by Fabian Bachrach, Griffith J. Davis and Frank O. Roberts, among others.
Biographical/historical: The Phelps-Stokes Fund was established in 1911 as a non-profit foundation under the will of philanthropist Caroline Phelps Stokes. The fund was originally committed to the improvement of education for African Americans, Africans, Native Americans and "needy" white students, as well as the improvement of housing for the poor in New York City.
Publications: Higher education : a study of the private and higher schools for colored people in the United States. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1917.
Content: Forms part of the Phelps-Stokes Fund Records, 1893-1970.
Physical Description
Gelatin silver prints
Dye coupler prints
Negatives
Photographic postcards
Extent: 533 items (1 cubic ft., 4 boxes)
Extent: 72 photographic prints :gelatin silver, black and white :33 x 22 cm and smaller.
Extent: 93 photographic prints :gelatin silver, black and white :21 x 26 cm and smaller.
Extent: 305 photographic prints :gelatin silver, black and white :13 x 18 cm and smaller.
Extent: 6 photographic prints :color :28 x 31 cm and smaller.
Extent: 2 photogravures :black and white ;24 x 16 cm and smaller.
Extent: 8 photographic postcards :gelatin silver, black and white ;14 x 9 cm.
Extent: 2 photomechanical prints :halftone, black and white ;11 x 22 cm and smaller.
Extent: 45 negatives :black and white ;20 x 25 cm and smaller.
Organized into three series: I. Officials and public figures; II. United States - Activities and projects, 1913-1968; III. Africa - Activities and projects, 1920-1959.
Type of Resource
Still image
Identifiers
RLIN/OCLC: 1273198010
NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b22608988
Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): e690d340-e500-013a-1c4c-0242ac110003
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