Blog Post 2: An Analysis of the Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection

I chose to look at the digital archive The Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection. This archive consists of 121 photographic prints that were collected by Miriam Matthews. Miriam Matthews was the first professional African American librarian in the Los Angeles Public Library, as well as a collector of African American art and history. Approximately half of the photographs in this collection were taken by a photographer by the name of Harry A. Adams. These photos were taken in Southern California between the years of 1955 and 1964. These photos are mostly of important African American politicians during this time period. The other half of the photographs consists of reproductions of images owned by other institutions. The photos are all related to African American history in the United States.

Because of the wide variety of photographs in this collection, the types of narrative one could tell are expansive. For example, one could convey the narrative of the political culture of African Americans during the late 1950s to the early 1960s. In addition, one could tell the story of the evolution of the role African Americans play in United States politics starting from the early 1900s all the way to the mid 1960s. The archive includes photos of politicians with their children, celebrating birthdays, and attending church. From these photos, one could create a more personal narrative outlining the work that these politicians did, which includes details regarding their families, friends, and other elements of their personal lives.

If one were to base a narrative solely off of the records in this collection, the details necessary to make the narrative feel more scholarly would be missing. Because the collection consists of only photographs, there is no textual evidence of the accomplishments and histories of the various politicians. I believe documents such as newspaper clippings, interviews with the politicians, as well as family members and loved ones associated with the politicians, and biographies of the various politicians would add to the richness of the narrative. In addition, there is a fair amount of photos of unidentified persons. It would be beneficial if one were able to gain access to resources, such as historians, that would help to identify the persons in these photographs. This would also add to the narrative because we would gain a deeper insight into the lives of the photographed individuals if we were able to obtain a name from which to begin to search for more information about them.