An American Community of Color: Beaver Brook, Massachusetts 1897-1917

[irisblue]

https://flashbak.com/american-community-color-beaver-brook-massachusetts-1897-1917-396444/


Snip-"William Bullard toured his native Worcester, Massachusetts, by bicycle as a professional photographer. From 1897 to 1917, Bullard, who was white, took portraits of his predominantly black and Native American neighbors in Beaver Brook. He kept notes on his sitters, and thanks to the work of students at Clark University, we can link names to the subjects"

The hats are amazing. The dressed to the absolute finest in their best.

[70sEraVet]

1. Loved the photos!

And the fact that the folks were identified and their back-stories given is amazing!
Our county in Tennessee, Stewart County, also had a photographer (Samuel A. Feltner) working in the same time period. He also photographed many of the local African Americans. But sadly, I don't think any of the folks have ever been identified.
Here is a collection of his African American photos:
https://www.tngennet.org/stewart/fpa/fpaafricanamericans.htm

I work on a few of the old African American cemeteries in the area, and do research on the folks buried there. I would love to be able to match some of those photos with the people I am researching -- to give them a face as well as a name!

[irisblue]

2. Those photos are amazing

How did women keep those dresses white?
Image 9, the young couple holding hands looking in to camera, and now into our day..

[70sEraVet]

3. That one photo sticks with me, too.

The look of dignified determination together, despite the Jim Crow laws and and the ever-present threat of organized white-supremacist violence that they will be facing.
I would really love to know how their lives turned out.