1920s-1940s Harlem Renaissance Photo Archive

[African American] [Harlem] Collection of 8 silver gelatin photographs of Harlem during the 1900s-1940s. Harlem was a booming cultural center for African Americans from the beginning of WWI to post WWII. From unskilled laborers to an educated middle-class, they shared common experiences of slavery, emancipation, and racial oppression, as well as a determination to forge a new identity as free people. Around the second war, out of the 485,000 African Americans in New York, 300,000 lived in Harlem making it the most concentrated area for Black Americans in the entire country. This allowed for African Americans to develop their own economy and form their (truncated) own cultural revolution. Famous writers, musicians, and artists came out of this scene such as Langston Hughes, Neale Hurston, and Duke Ellington just to name a few. These photographs show the day to day lives of Black Americans during this significant period of opportunity, creative expression, and the breaking of racial norms. One photo captures brass musicians on stage in a dark jazz club, the central figure being an African American woman shaking maracas. Another shows a lively street parade with the majority band members and crowd being of African descent. The earliest sepia photograph shows to be from the early 1900s with a female teacher and dozens of elementary grade students posed on school steps, all are of African descent. A later photograph from 1939 shows a group of bi-racial students part of the "safety patrol." Three interesting street views from the 1940s-1950s show captivating moments of families, couples, and groups of friends interacting on the sidewalks by old brick buildings and classic cars. Lastly, a suburban photograph from the 1930s-1940s shows a young African American man in sportswear jumping over a hurdle, possibly training for the Olympics or other competitive sports in which other race could compete since 1904. The Harlem Renaissance laid a foundation for Black Americans to create their own identity, making room for progressivism through The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Photographs are crisp and clear, minor creasing to some edges, overall in very good condition. (Inventory #: 20176)