Wanderings in History

I love historical photographs. I wrote a paper about WEB DuBois' photography portion of his American Negro exhibit from the Paris Exposition of 1900. With these photographs, DuBois wanted to show the world a different side of black life at the turn of the twentieth century, one that was totally unknown to many American and European whites.

The use of photographs depicting black middle-class society was one way DuBois fought against negative images and perceptions of African Americans at that time. These photographs show blacks who are business owners, students, and musicians. But what I'm most drawn to are the portraits. The portraits show the diversity of our physical features and what is most striking to me is that these folks look like my friends, family, or other modern day people I pass on the street.

Before writing this paper, I had never heard of the exhibit or seen these photographs. They are a part of such an important part of this countries history.

If you're interested in seeing more of these photographs, check out the Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs online collection at www.loc.gov. I also love the book A Small Nation of People: Portraits of Progress by David Levering Lewis and Deborah Willis, which details the history behind the American Negro exhibit and features a number of the photographs.

Photographs from the Library of Congress website.