Black Women

Wife of the first African American lawyer in Minnesota, Fredrick McGhee. Along with W.E.B. DuBois her husband was also one of the founders of the Niagara Movement and the NAACP. Sources: Minnesota Historical Society; Harry Shepherd, Photographer; Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present; by Deborah Willis

Portrait of an unknown African American woman. Locale unknown. [ Saga of the Black Woman by Rosetta Lucas Quisenberry ]

This well dressed African American woman is Lucy Davis. She was an entrepreneur, a land owner, and a sugar beet farmer. She was also the great grandmother of legendary blactress Pam Grier. [ Photograph was tweeted by Ms. Grier on April 20, 2016]

An unknown beauty photographed at a studio in Ontario. Ontario Historical Society

Cartes-de-visite of an unknown African American young woman taken at A.E. Beers Studio in Rushville, New York. Benjamin Layton collection/Anacostia Community Museum Archives

Photograph of an unknown African American young woman taken inside a photo booth, circa 1940s/1950s. Photographer unknown.

Lovely portrait of Octavia Parker Ferguson, A. O. & Dorothy Steele Collection

Lovely portrait of Ms. Baker taken by African American photographer P.H. Polk. Source: Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present by Deborah Willis

Cabinet card of a young African American woman with what appears to be letters on her lap. Gates, Branch of Forestville Studio, Chicago, Courtesy of Larry Gottheim

Nelly Hill was a student at Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. She was one of seven daughters of John Henry and Rosetta Hill who attended the school. History of VSU The university was founded on March 6, 1882 as the Virginia Normal and College Institute after the state legislature passed a bill sponsored by Delegate Alfred W. Harris, a black attorney, which chartered the university. The state established the university to serve the needs of a population that was at the time excluded from other public institutions in Virginia. Virginia Normal and College Institute opened as a teacher training college for both male and female black students but it also included a modest liberal arts curriculum. The campus opened on October 1, 1883 with 126 students and seven faculty members, all of whom were black, on an operating budget of $20,000. In 1885, John Mercer Langston, a leading African American figure of the time and soon to be the first African American elected to Congress from Virginia, was named the university's first president. The school changed its name to Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute in 1902 after the state legislature revised the charter and curtailed the liberal arts program. In 1920, the state moved its land-grant program for blacks from private Hampton Institute, where it had been since 1872, to Virginia Normal and Industrial College. The college program was restored in 1923 and the school was renamed the Virginia State College for Negroes in 1930. The college opened up a branch campus in Norfolk in 1944, which would later gain its independence and become Norfolk State College. In 1946, the school was renamed Virginia State College and finally, in 1979, the state legislature passed a law that renamed the institution Virginia State University. Info and Photo: Virginia State University History

Beautiful portrait of an unknown young woman taken at Stewart Studio in Kansas City, Missouri. Missouri Historical Society

Daguerreotype of an unknown young lady wearing a checkered dress, two rings on her left hand, brooch at her collar and a hunters case pocket watch attached to her belt. E. Willard, Photographer; Cowan Auctions

Unknown young lady poses for her formal portrait in New York. C.M. Marsh, Photographer, Randolph Linsly Simpson Collection

A carte-de-visite of an unknown woman taken in Topeka, Kansas at the W.P. Bliss Photography Studio. Kansas Historical Society

Ambrotype of an unknown African American woman, circa 1860s. Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs (Library of Congress)

Tintype of an African American woman. Name, locale and photographer unknown. Daniel Cowin Collection

This heavily hand-tinted tintype was in the possession of Iris Sloman Bell, of St. Catharines, Ontario. Relatives of the Bell-Sloman families include former slaves from the United States who escaped to Canada. They later settled in the London and St. Catharines areas of southern Ontario. [ Rick Bell Family, Brock University Archives, Brock University ]

An unknown beauty photographed sometime in the late 19th century. L. D. Shaw Studio, Fond du Lac, WI