[African American Photographica]: [Louisiana]:

[Large Vernacular Family Photograph Album Documenting Numerous Aspects of African-American Life in Midcentury Louisiana].

[Various locations in Louisiana: 1952-1968]. [81] leaves, illustrated with 701 photographs, some in color but mostly in black-and-white. Oblong folio. Contemporary green cloth, screw-bound. Moderate soiling and wear to album, both covers and a few internal leaves detached. Album leaves with varying levels of chipping and wear, a handful of photographs with paper remnants from being stuck to facing images on a few leaves, but the great majority of images in very good or better condition. Overall good condition. Item #4412

A thoroughly charming and mammoth assortment of vernacular photographs documenting the activities of an African-American family and their friends in Jim Crow Louisiana. Many of the images contain dated captions printed in the borders, helping to identify the time they were taken, and are not arranged chronologically; the album was likely compiled some time in the mid-1960s. The wealth of images capture men, women, and children at home, often playing with their children, visiting, sitting on the porch, and so forth. The photographs also feature the family at church, weddings, family events, swimming, at Christmas, and more. A great number of the images feature subjects posed in front of or near personal automobiles, an important development in the lives of Black families in the mid-20th century. The album does not contain any captions or notations, but the license plates of several automobiles in some of the images can be read clearly, identifying the setting as Louisiana. Three photos document a young man and woman near a flooded portion of a neighborhood. A few of the men featured here sport military uniforms. The sheer number of images provide an excellent opportunity for further study into African-American life in Louisiana in the 1950s and '60s - a time of great transition and upheaval in the country.

Price: $1,250