Depictions of African American plantation workers, who are members of the Gullah people of South Carolina, from 1929 to 1933, consisting of individual portraits of men and women, many of whom are elderly; group portraits of couples, adults with children, and families; and views of individuals or groups doing primarily agricultural work, performing daily activities, participating in baptisms and other religious services, and socializing with friends and family. The images were taken at the Lang Syne Plantation near Fort Motte, South Carolina, which was owned by William Peterkin, the husband of "Roll, Jordan, Roll" author Julia Peterkin. Also of note are studio portraits of actor Richard Berry Harrison (ca. 1932); a studio portrait of writer and activist James Weldon Johnson (1930); and a view of an elderly black woman walking with a cane, dated 1917.
Content: Title based on text description from related exhibition.
Content: Some items bear photographer's signature on recto of original 37 x 29 cm mounts; most are signed Doris Ulmann, one item is signed Doris U. Jaeger '17. One print bears stylized photographer's initials in red ink on recto. One original window mat bears photographer's handwritten caption on recto.
Content: All prints are attached to original 37 x 29 cm mounts, which have been attached to new mounts in 51 x 41 cm mats. All new mats bear matching handwritten numbers on recto of mount and verso of window mat, which correspond to handwritten numbers on original mounts.
Content: New mats bear conservator's label on mount recto, that read either as "Mat: Museum Mount Board, 2001. Goldsmith Conservation Laboratory. New York Public Library," or "Mat: Nelson Bainbridge Alphamat board with zeolites, 2001. Goldsmith Conservation Laboratory. The New York Public Library." Three mats bear no labels.
Content: Some items bear additional handwritten notations on original mount rectos. Some original mounts have rips or missing edges. Some prints are duplicates.
Content: Most original window mats are separated from original mounts; one window mat is still attached to mount.
Biographical/historical: Doris Ulmann, 1882-1934, was an American photographer who initially practiced pictorialism - a form of soft focus art photography - during the 1910s, but became a photojournalist from the early 1920s until her death in 1934. Ulmann's work included portraiture of prominant professional, literary and art figures; and documenting the lives of rural people of the American South, including Appalachian mountain people and the Gullahs of South Carolina. Notable publications containing her work include "Roll, Jordan, Roll" (1933), and the posthumous "Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands" (1937).
Publications: Roll, Jordan, roll; the text by Julia Peterkin; the photographic studies by Doris Ulmann. New York : R.O. Ballou, c1933.
Physical Description
Extent: 206 items (5 cubic ft., 10 boxes)
Extent: 107 photographic prints :gelatin silver, black and white, some platinum, matted ;21 x 16 cm and smaller (prints), 51 x 41 cm (mats)
Extent: 4 photographic prints :gelatin silver, black and white, some platinum, matted ;16 x 21 cm and smaller (prints), 41 x 51 cm (mats)
