Photography - Overview
The millions of photographs in the Museum's collections compose a vast mosaic of the nation's history. Photographs accompany most artifact collections. Thousands of images document engineering projects, for example, and more record the steel, petroleum, and railroad industries.
Some 150,000 images capture the history, art, and science of photography. Nineteenth-century photography, from its initial development by W. H. F. Talbot and Louis Daguerre, is especially well represented and includes cased images, paper photographs, and apparatus. Glass stereographs and news-service negatives by the Underwood & Underwood firm document life in America between the 1890s and the 1930s. The history of amateur photography and photojournalism are preserved here, along with the work of 20th-century masters such as Richard Avedon and Edward Weston. Thousands of cameras and other equipment represent the technical and business side of the field.
"Photography - Overview" showing 3 items.
[Addison, Robert, and George Scurlock in studio : photoprint, 1951]
- Notes
- See corresponding original negative, cat. no. 618.178944
- Summary
- Trio in studio setting, posed near view camera, with banks of fluorescent lights above and behind them; photographed from low angle. Print, on a double-weight, warm-toned paper, is uncaptioned
- Date
- 1951
- 20th century
- 1940-1960
- 1950-1960
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- Subject
- Scurlock, Addison N. 1883-1964
- Scurlock, Robert S [Saunders] 1917-1994
- Scurlock, George H [Hardison] 1919-2005
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[George and Robert Scurlock standing in front of U St. studio. Black-and-white photoprint.]
- Summary
- "Scurlock brothers, George and Robert, in front of studio at '9th & U' St Founded by their father in 1911. This is oldest on-going black business in Washington--began in 1904." (Ink on verso; also "Copyright, Scurlock Studio, Wash., D.C. 20009" stamp. George and Robert standing in front of Scurlock studio, Robert with 35mm camera around his neck
- Date
- 1950
- 1960
- 20th century
- 1950-1970
- 1950-1960
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- Subject
- Scurlock, Robert S [Saunders] 1917-1994
- Scurlock, George H [Hardison] 1919-2005
- Local number
- AC0618.001.0000053.tif (AC Scan)
- 2008-4941 (OIPP no.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994
- Notes
- As a young African American, Addison Scurlock studied photography with Washington photographer Moses P. Rice, and began using his parents' home as a photographic studio in 1905; in 1911 he opened his own studio. Later, sons George and Robert assisted him and worked as photographers in the studio. After Addison's death his sons continued to operate the studio until George retired in the 1970s and Robert died in 1994. Two other separate business enterprises were associated with the studio: The Capitol School of Photography, which was operated by Robert and George out of the studio, 1948-1952, and Custom Craft, a color laboratory service which opened as the school closed. (The collection contains material related to all these facets of the business.)
- Summary
- Approximately 250,000 photonegatives, photoprints, color transparencies from the photographic business founded by Addison Scurlock in Washington, D.C. Collection also includes business records and ephemera
- Photographs: Includes portraits of famous African-American luminaries such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, and many other artists, intellectuals, educators, entertainers, etc., as well as documentation of Washington, D.C., including both the African-American community and national political life, and important photographs of Howard University; also commercial photography, including color materials
- Color separation materials: Sets of black-and-white color-separation negatives, sets of matrices for the Kodak Dye Transfer process, etc. (full-color Dye Transfer prints are storied in a different series)
- Business records: The photography studio records and Custom Craft records are in separate subseries, reflecting the fact that they were operated as separate businesses
- Cite as
- Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1905
- 1905-1994
- ca 1905-1994
- 20th century
- photographers
- Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
- photographer
- Rice, Moses P
- Scurlock, Addison N. 1883-1964
- Scurlock, Robert S [Saunders] 1917-1994
- Scurlock, George H [Hardison] 1919-2005
- printmakers
- Custom Craft
- Subject
- Washington, Booker T. 1856-1915
- DuBois, W.E.B (William Edward Burghardt) 1868-1963
- Howard University
- Local number
- 1998.3003 (NMAH Acc.)
- 1998.0011 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
