Portraits from Manhattan -- About the Project

	About the Project
	Postcards from Manhattan: The Portrait Photography of Carl Van Vechten features over 700 postcards bearing portraits of notable African Americans from the first half of the twentieth century. Photographed by Carl Van Vechten between 1932 and 1956, the 112 African Americans depicted on these postcards include authors, artists, entertainers, and intellectuals, many of whom had been associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Marquette University is pleased to publish this collection to coincide with the centennial of the founding (1909) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Historical context Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) rose to public prominence as a novelist and critic of the arts, but his life changed in 1932, when he purchased a Leica camera and began photographing his vast circle of friends and acquaintances. Van Vechten's "hobby" soon became the major preoccupation of his life, resulting in a famous body of portraiture depicting hundreds of prominent individuals in the arts. Among Van Vechten's subjects were many African Americans -- not a surprising development, since he enjoyed a public reputation as a lover and patron of African American art and culture. The civil rights leader Walter White once referred to Van Vechten's Manhattan apartment as the "midtown branch of the NAACP." A voluminous correspondent, Van Vechten often mailed his portraits to friends in the form of postcards, usually accompanied by greetings on the back side. Among the friends whom Van Vechten flooded with postcards was Karl J. Priebe (1914-1976), a prominent Wisconsin artist and fellow admirer of African American culture. From 1946 to 1956, Van Vechten mailed over 4,000 postcards to Priebe. Karl J. Priebe (left) and Carl Van Vechten, New York City, 1953 Following Priebe's death, the postcards passed to Marquette University as part of the Karl J. Priebe Papers, maintained by the Department of Special Collections and Archives at the Raynor Memorial Library. Creating the digital collection Planning for the project began in April 2008. Archivists identified African Americans from the long list of Van Vechten's subjects, and then began scanning their portraits in early summer. Staff also scanned the back side of each postcard and performed the difficult task of transcribing Van Vechten's handwritten notes to Priebe. The department wishes to thank Professor Bruce Kellner — Van Vechten's biographer and literary executor — for assistance in deciphering the illegible words scattered throughout this body of correspondence. Marquette bears responsibility for any remaining errors in the dating or transcription of these postcards. Using the CONTENTdm software, archivists began constructing the postcards for online presentation in late fall 2008. Completion of the project coincided with a public program delivered by Professor Kellner at Marquette University on February 9, 2009, titled "Carl Van Vechten's African American Photographs and the Karl Priebe Legacy." Nine of the individuals who appear in this digital collection — Peter Abrahams, Feral Benga, Scoogie Brown, Rudolph Dunbar, Geoffrey Holder, George Lamming, La Belle Rosette, William Gardner Smith, and Portia White — were not U.S. citizens (and therefore not African Americans, if defined as U.S. citizens of African descent); however, they were included in the collection. To distinguish among multiple portraits of the same individual, archivists numbered the postcard titles sequentially (i.e., Billie Holiday 01, Billie Holiday 02, etc.). Please note that Van Vechten did not devise this numbering system. We tried to group like images together, but our arrangement does not claim to reflect the order in which Van Vechten took the photographs. It should also be noted that certain individuals posed on more than one occasion for Van Vechten, with their visits sometimes occurring years apart. To check the date of a photograph, click on the thumbnail to open the full image and then choose the "View item description" option located to the left of each portrait. A handful of the portraits remain undated. The original postcards, on average, measure 3.5 inches by 5.5 inches. The backs of some postcards in the collection have been rotated for easier reading. Van Vechten addressed most of the postcards to Priebe; however, a few of them are addressed to Frank Harriot, Priebe's longtime friend and partner. Further questions about this digital collection or the selection and workflow procedures involved can be directed to Bill Fliss.

About the Project

Postcards from Manhattan: The Portrait Photography of Carl Van Vechten features over 700 postcards bearing portraits of notable African Americans from the first half of the twentieth century. Photographed by Carl Van Vechten between 1932 and 1956, the 112 African Americans depicted on these postcards include authors, artists, entertainers, and intellectuals, many of whom had been associated with the Harlem Renaissance.

Marquette University is pleased to publish this collection to coincide with the centennial of the founding (1909) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Historical context

Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) rose to public prominence as a novelist and critic of the arts, but his life changed in 1932, when he purchased a Leica camera and began photographing his vast circle of friends and acquaintances. Van Vechten's "hobby" soon became the major preoccupation of his life, resulting in a famous body of portraiture depicting hundreds of prominent individuals in the arts. Among Van Vechten's subjects were many African Americans -- not a surprising development, since he enjoyed a public reputation as a lover and patron of African American art and culture. The civil rights leader Walter White once referred to Van Vechten's Manhattan apartment as the "midtown branch of the NAACP."

A voluminous correspondent, Van Vechten often mailed his portraits to friends in the form of postcards, usually accompanied by greetings on the back side. Among the friends whom Van Vechten flooded with postcards was Karl J. Priebe (1914-1976), a prominent Wisconsin artist and fellow admirer of African American culture. From 1946 to 1956, Van Vechten mailed over 4,000 postcards to Priebe.

Karl J. Priebe (left) and Carl Van Vechten, New York City, 1953

Following Priebe's death, the postcards passed to Marquette University as part of the Karl J. Priebe Papers, maintained by the Department of Special Collections and Archives at the Raynor Memorial Library.

Creating the digital collection

Planning for the project began in April 2008. Archivists identified African Americans from the long list of Van Vechten's subjects, and then began scanning their portraits in early summer. Staff also scanned the back side of each postcard and performed the difficult task of transcribing Van Vechten's handwritten notes to Priebe. The department wishes to thank Professor Bruce Kellner — Van Vechten's biographer and literary executor — for assistance in deciphering the illegible words scattered throughout this body of correspondence. Marquette bears responsibility for any remaining errors in the dating or transcription of these postcards.

Using the CONTENTdm software, archivists began constructing the postcards for online presentation in late fall 2008. Completion of the project coincided with a public program delivered by Professor Kellner at Marquette University on February 9, 2009, titled "Carl Van Vechten's African American Photographs and the Karl Priebe Legacy."

Nine of the individuals who appear in this digital collection — Peter Abrahams, Feral Benga, Scoogie Brown, Rudolph Dunbar, Geoffrey Holder, George Lamming, La Belle Rosette, William Gardner Smith, and Portia White — were not U.S. citizens (and therefore not African Americans, if defined as U.S. citizens of African descent); however, they were included in the collection.

To distinguish among multiple portraits of the same individual, archivists numbered the postcard titles sequentially (i.e., Billie Holiday 01, Billie Holiday 02, etc.). Please note that Van Vechten did not devise this numbering system. We tried to group like images together, but our arrangement does not claim to reflect the order in which Van Vechten took the photographs. It should also be noted that certain individuals posed on more than one occasion for Van Vechten, with their visits sometimes occurring years apart. To check the date of a photograph, click on the thumbnail to open the full image and then choose the "View item description" option located to the left of each portrait. A handful of the portraits remain undated.

The original postcards, on average, measure 3.5 inches by 5.5 inches. The backs of some postcards in the collection have been rotated for easier reading. Van Vechten addressed most of the postcards to Priebe; however, a few of them are addressed to Frank Harriot, Priebe's longtime friend and partner.

Further questions about this digital collection or the selection and workflow procedures involved can be directed to Bill Fliss.