[Annotated Vernacular Photograph Album Mostly Documenting the Latter College Experience of Miss Sylvester Leggett, an African-American Graduate of Bethune-Cookman College in Jim Crow Florida]

[Mostly Daytona Beach, Florida, 1940. Good plus.. [12] leaves, illustrated with forty-six original black-and-white or sepia-toned photographs, many with ink captions in the margins or image areas, most mounted but with some loose images, plus a handful of newspaper clippings. Oblong octavo. Contemporary brown textured cloth, blind and gilt stamped, string tied. Front cover detached but present, noticeable edge wear, rubbing, and some abrasions to covers. Mostly minor wear to images. A wonderful annotated vernacular photograph album featuring Miss Sylvester Leggett of Bethune-Cookman College and numerous college friends of hers in Daytona Beach, Florida (truncated) in the years just before World War II. The first photograph pictures Leggett as a young graduate of Bethune-Cookman College in May 1940; the image identifies her in the bottom margin, "Sylvester Leggett." In addition to her photograph, the album most likely belonged to her evidenced by an April 1942 U.S. Civil Service typist's report belonging to her, filled out by "Miss Sylvester Leggett," by which time she was living in Jacksonville, Florida. The present album mostly pictures scenes on the Bethune-Cookman campus, as well as other views in and around Daytona Beach, including several identified African-American men and women, mostly in 1939. Following the portrait of Leggett, subsequent photographs feature young African-American men identified as Robert Kelly (featured in two different photos), Robert Jones, and Beamon Randall; a scene down Second Avenue in Daytona Beach; two women named Alice and Valerie posed outside White Hall on the Bethune-Cookman campus; another scene outside campus buildings labeled as the "Art Building" and a "Cabin;" other images featuring young women named Flora Lyle, Idella Jones, Ernestine Nelson, Lucile, Bonnie, Doretha, and Ruby (likely other Bethune-Cookman students), as well as an image of "Mrs. Hunt" outside the dining room on campus; a few images of a football field labeled "Orlando" (probably a Bethune-Cookman football game); and more. Many of the later pictures feature Leggett posed by herself or with friends, presumably in the years following her graduation. The most informative college-era photograph pictures a group of African-American women captioned, "Cavalette's Club," a well-known campus organization at Bethune-Cookman; the image is particularly valuable for including ink captions for a dozen of the women featured in the group photograph. A valuable primary source for documenting campus life at a notable Florida HBCU during the Jim Crow period. (Inventory #: 5278)