Scope and Contents of the Collection
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Overview of the Collection |
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Creator: | Polk, P. H., 1898-1984. |
Title: | P.H. Polk Photographs |
Inclusive Dates: | 1930s |
Quantity: | 1 folder (SC) |
Abstract: | Five portrait photographs (silver gelatin prints) taken by Black American photographer P.H. (Prentice Henry) Polk |
Language: | English |
Repository: |
Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center |
P.H. (Prentice Henry) Polk (1898-1984) was a Black American photographer. He studied photography at the Tuskegee Institute, where he later became a teacher, official photographer, and finally head of its Department of Photography. He is known particularly for his black-and-white portraits of both famous (Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, George Washington Carver) and working-class/rural (his series "Old Characters" focused on formerly enslaved men and women from Macon County, Alabama).
The P.H. Polk Photographs consists of five 8x10 portrait photographs (silver gelatin prints). Two are identified ("Mrs Cot and son" and "Mr George Moore") while the other three (a family, a couple outside their cabin, and two elderly individuals picking cotton). All but one are signed by Polk.
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Preferred citation for this material is as follows:
P.H. Polk Photographs,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries
Purchase, 2021
Created by: MRC
Date: 4 May 2021
Revision history: