Loewentheil Collection of African-American Photographs
The collection includes some images that are racist, violent, disturbing, or that portray stereotyped or other negative representations of the people depicted. These images have been included as part of the historical record to enable study of this history. Cornell University and its staff do not endorse or approve of the negative representations or stereotypes presented.
About this collection
This digital collection contains more than 600 images from the Loewentheil Collection of African American Photographs, a collection that was assembled by Stephan Loewentheil ('75 Law) and donated to Cornell University by the Loewentheil family in 2012. The images are a component of the Loewentheil photographic collections held by Cornell University Library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.
Images from the Loewentheil Collection of African American Photographs were digitized by Cornell University Library in 2016, with funding from a Library digitization grant to Katherine Reagan, Curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts, and Cheryl Finley, Associate Professor in the History of Art Department, Cornell University. These historically significant and largely unique images were selected to make them broadly and freely available to the public.
Many of the photographs survived and arrived at Cornell without names, places, or dates included. As is often the case with early photographic prints, identifying information was either never recorded with the image by photographers or former owners, or was lost along the way. Where such original data has survived, descriptions and titles have been drawn from information on or within the physical photographs or associated albums. Missing data has been supplied by interpretative analysis and some errors may be present.
Historical context
Spanning from the 1860s to the 1960s, this digital collection offers images reflecting a century of African American life. Prominent among the collection are portraits of individuals from the mid-19th through the early 20th centuries, depictions of everyday work and family life, along with some notable figures of the 20th century, such as Angela Davis, Muhummad Ali, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Personal photograph albums are another element of the collection. In many instances, the photographs within these albums are included, page by page. Images in these albums sometimes feature individuals or groups of multiple racial identities.
More information about the Loewentheil Photographic Collections at Cornell University can be found in the finding aid for the collection.
Using the collection
The collection can be browsed or searched by keyword for broad subject terms such as "men," "women," "children," or "African Americans." Some terms for formats or mediums may also be searched, such as "portrait" or "hand coloring."
Some images in the Loewentheil Collection of African-American Photographs (RMM08043) are believed to be in the public domain in the United States by virtue of their creation date (pre-1923). The copyright status and copyright owners of the remaining images in the Loewentheil Collection of African-American Photographs (RMM08043) are unknown.
More information
- Collection steward
- Katherine Reagan, Ernest L. Stern '56 Curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts, Cornell University Library
- Metadata creation
- Cornell University Library
- Funding
- Grants Program for Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences, awarded to Cheryl Finley, Art History and Katherine Reagan, Cornell University Library in 2013.
- Credits
- This collection overview was prepared by Katherine Reagan, Ernest L. Stern '56 Curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts, Cornell University Library, August 2025.
- Collection sources