Sign up to receive email notices of recent acquisitions.

[Views documenting Petersburg, Virginia and the African American presence there.] Photographs [cover-title].

[Birdville, Petersburg, Virginia, 1891–93.]. 16mo (6.5” x 7.5”), black cloth. 49 silver bromide prints, 4.5” x 3.75” on 25 leaves. CONDITION: Dampstaining and moderate wear to spine and covers, with a minor loss to the upper-left corner of front-cover. Photos nearly loose, minor abrasion to the first photo as well as a few others, black discoloration to the upper-left corner of one photo, light streaks in the lower-right portion of another, one faded, two discolored, occasional light wear to margins of photos.

A late-19th century album with smartly-composed views in and around the Birdville neighborhood of Petersburg, Virginia, featuring the historically-black Virginia State Normal School and including images of African American domestic workers in a local home.

This album contains photos showing the beautiful, vine-strewn home of the album's unknown compiler, including many images of the homeowner’s children Helen and Anit and other shots picturing individuals who are likely their parents. There are also attractive studies of the various rooms in the home, as well as well-rendered, artistic photos of the surrounding natural scenes, and a handful of interesting portraits of the African American staff of the property, most identified by their first names. One image captioned “Kitchen at Birdville” names four of them: Amy, Betty, Lee (playing a banjo), and Rebecca (holding a dustpan)—all of whom stand outside the kitchen with the child Anita. Perhaps the most striking image in this album shows Helen and Anita sitting at a table with a black woman named Mollie. In another photo, the servants Betty and Lee stand next to Anita in a horse-drawn cart.

Two photos show the grounds of what is today Virginia State University, identified in the album as the “Virginia State Normal School.” One of these shows Petersburg from Birdville and identifies the Normal School on the horizon, and the other is a view of the school. Located in Petersburg, VSU is a historically black college founded in 1882 when the legislature passed a bill chartering the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. The bill was sponsored by Delegate Alfred W. Harris, a Black attorney who lived in and represented Dinwiddie County in the General Assembly, and whose offices were in Petersburg. Given the number of photos of the campus, it is possible the album’s compiler was a teacher or an employee there.

Other shots show two white men gambling at a table; winter scenes of Birdville, and views of the Appomattox River as seen from Campbell’s Bridge. Several photos document local industrial buildings in Petersburg such as a dye house, a penstock, a weave shed, a throwing department, and an engine house.

REFERENCES: "Our History" at Virginia State University online

Item #7633

Price: $1,750.00