Each month, Curator’s Corner welcomes a Tennessee State Museum curator to offer insight and interpretation on Museum artifacts and their connection to Tennessee history.
By Candice Candeto
National Photography Month this May is an opportunity to highlight some of the thousands of photographs in the Tennessee State Museum’s collection, from daguerreotypes to digital images. In a photography-saturated age, considering some of the ways these photographs add meaning and value to the Museum’s collection can help us appreciate these important artifacts.
Join us in celebrating National Photography Month by trying out different ways of looking at these favorites from our collection.
Photographs inspire us to see.
Saj Crone, The River’s Gift, 2008, photographic print. Tennessee State Museum Collection, (2012.152.2)
Through their unique artistic vision, photographers welcome their audience to see the world in new ways. In this image from the series The River’s Gift, Memphis-native Saj Crone presents the flooded Mississippi River as a shimmering mirror, reflecting back the sculptural dark forms of the leafless trees the water has encircled. Crone finds beauty in what could be seen as destruction or loss, inviting the viewer to do the same.
Jack Spencer, Horses / Road / Fog, 2004, photographic print. Tennessee State Museum Collection, (2019.5.2)
Nashville-based photographer Jack Spencer is nationally recognized for his captivating images that often evoke an ethereal, otherworldly feel. Spencer describes his images as metaphors that present poignant themes he finds in culture and history. Here, an isolated road winds through a vast field where cattle graze. Spencer’s manipulation of the photograph using color and texture gives the image an antique feel, although created in the 21st century. Spencer’s techniques range from applying filters over film negatives to the chemical and physical distressing of the photographic paper. Here, the cinematic effect creates a captivating story that ignites the viewer’s imagination.
Photographs preserve history.
George Barnard, The Capitol Nashville. (Tenn.), 1866, albumen print mounted on board. Tennessee Historical Society Collection, (95.103)
Photographs preserve landscapes, people, and events that have been lost to the past. Completed in 1859, the Tennessee State Capitol stands as an enduring landmark in Nashville. This image was created in 1864 during the Civil War. Nashville was held by Union forces, whose white tents are visible toward the center of the image. While today the Capitol is surrounded by modern buildings and landscaping, images from the Civil War allow us to see the building when it was newly built. Photographer George Barnard’s studio created this photograph as part of his pivotal work Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign, published in 1866. Like many photographers who documented the Civil War, Barnard at times manipulated his images. When critics noted the overexposed white skies, Barnard photographed clouds, imposing the cloud negatives onto his landscapes with artful masking techniques. Even in this early age of photography, photographers played an active role as craftspeople in shaping their images.
Tintype of Catherine Hunt with Julia Tate Hunt (infant), 1852, in a case by A. P. Critchlow & Company, Tennessee State Museum Collection, (1999.130)
Sometimes photographs can bring to light that which might otherwise be absent from the archival record. When the Hunt Family of Memphis commissioned this tintype in 1852, they were likely interested primarily in capturing their young daughter, Julia. Catherine Hunt, an enslaved servant of the family, sat for the portrait as a support for the infant. The decision to include Catherine’s face in the image was no accident: the photographer could have cropped her out of the frame or covered her face with a sheet, as others at times did, or Julia could have been held by her mother or another family member. Instead, the Hunts joined the common practice of the 19th-century South to include enslaved people in portraitures. Even before photography, painted portraits of white children and their families often included the Black enslaved people who served them. Motivations for this are complex and varied, although typically intended to elevate the status of the white sitters in the portrait. Despite the intent of the people who commissioned and created this image, Catherine, not baby Julia, became the compelling, dominant subject of the image for viewers today. While the wiggling infant is slightly blurred, her eyes pulled off to the viewer’s left in distraction, Catherine holds her gaze fixedly at the viewer, initiating an unavoidable eye contact that compels the viewer to engage with her humanity.
N.E.A. Press Photo, [Untitled: Crowd at William Jennings Bryan’s Funeral,] July 31, 1925. Tennessee State Museum Collection, (2022.46.1.132)
A press photographer created the image above during the events surrounding the 1925 Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee. This photograph was taken at the funeral of William Jennings Bryan, a Scopes Trial prosecutor, who died five days after the end of the proceedings. Bryan’s funeral was in some ways a continuation of the trial for the people of Dayton, with many attending to honor what they saw as Bryan’s defense of traditional values.
This photograph uses strategic composition to tell a story. Onlookers in the foreground are blurred in motion, communicating the energy and busyness of the scene. To the left, an elderly man holds his hat to his chest in a gesture of honor and respect, perhaps exemplifying the view of Bryan’s supporters. At a key focal point along the right two-thirds of the composition is a young boy, his arms crossed, looking straight ahead toward the camera in contrast to the focus of the broader gathering. This intentional visual structure by the photographer draws the viewer’s attention to the boy, perhaps inviting us to consider the young minds whose educational futures were being shaped by the Scopes Trial and the national conversations surrounding it. Today, the photograph preserves an important historical moment through its maker’s viewpoint.
Photographs advocate for change.
Lewis Hine, Group of Young Girls, all working in May Hosiery Mills, Nashville, Tenn., 1910, photographic print. Tennessee State Museum Collection, (2001.79.8)
Photography has supported many causes throughout Tennessee history. Where pamphlets and speeches can sway an audience, a photograph can invite a viewer to see the situation for themselves—a powerful tool for motivating action. Lewis Hine became one the nation’s most significant photographers for his work with the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) beginning in 1908. Hine supported the NCLC’s lobbying efforts with powerful images he created documenting young children in hazardous, grueling working conditions. Hine visited Tennessee, where he photographed child workers in textile mills. In the image above, Hine emphasizes the girls’ innocence and youth: some display childish levity in their smiles, eager to pose for the camera, while others prove the mental and physical toll of their labor with darkened eyes and slumped posture.
Photograph of Anne Dallas Dudley and Trevania Dallas Dudley, c. 1911-1913, Tennessee State Museum Collection, (2018.153.2)
Anne Dallas Dudley was a passionate advocate and accomplished leader in the movement for women’s suffrage. This portrait of Dudley with her daughter, Trevania, portrays the activist as a loving mother. Demurely dressed in pearls, a soft expression on her face, Dudley rests her head against her young daughter in a portrait that feels intimate, gentle, and maternal. Viewed in light of Dudley’s critics who often tried to portray suffragists as negatively masculine or aggressive, this portrait is an effective counter to those who would oppose the 19th Amendment on such grounds. Viewers today, however, may interpret an assuredness in Dudley’s expression that resonates with our memory of her as a powerful leader. Gazing directly at the viewer as she leans toward Trevania, in hindsight Dudley seems to offer to us a motivation for her tireless fight for women’s rights—the little girl at her side who may one day cast a ballot.
Louise Dahl-Wolfe, William Edmondson, Primitive Sculptor, Nashville, 1937. Tennessee State Museum Collection, (80.237.2)
Louise Dahl-Wolfe was one of the most significant photographers to work in Tennessee. Although she is best remembered for her accomplishments in fashion, Dahl-Wolfe’s portraits of limestone sculptor William Edmondson are among her most impactful work. In the late 1930s, Edmondson welcomed Dahl-Wolfe to his Nashville work yard, where she photographed him with his remarkable limestone carvings. She then shared her images with Alfred H. Barr Jr., founding director of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, and used the images to advocate for the artist’s significance. Edmondson, who was little known outside of Nashville at the time, became the first Black artist to have a solo exhibition at MoMA in 1937. Dahl-Wolfe’s photographs caused Edmondson’s name, likeness, and art to travel further than the man himself ever did. As the person who crafted these portraits, Dahl-Wolfe played an active role in shaping how the world saw Edmondson and how his art was perceived.
Photographs communicate identity.
The largest group of photographs in the Museum’s collection consists of portraits. These carefully crafted images have much to say about how the sitter wanted to be viewed. In the early days of photography, the new medium made it possible for more people than ever to acquire a portrait of themselves or their loved ones. These surviving images tell us more than just what a person looked like, but about what they valued and how they wanted to be perceived.
Carte-de-visite of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers, 1871-1872., Pictured Left to Right: Minnie Tate, Greene Evans, Isaac Dickerson, Jennie Jackson, Maggie Porter, Ella Sheppard, Thomas Rutling, Benjamin Holmes, and Eliza Walker, Tennessee State Museum Collection, (2018.14.14.)
The Fisk Jubilee Singers performed spirituals internationally and were cultural global ambassadors for their school and its mission. By touring and sacrificing their own educational needs, they helped secure essential funding for Fisk that allowed the university to continue. The photograph above was translated into popular and accessible cartes-de-visite and reprinted in countless materials. The musicians pose with confident posture in a symmetrical arrangement, impeccably dressed in matching outfits in a current yet conservative style, set against a studio background that evokes classicism and refinement. Both their music and their public image were important to the Singers’ message, and photographs like this one supported their cause.
Carte-de-visite of a Nashville Woman, c. 1870-1880, Tennessee State Museum Collection, (1999.51.5)
Everyday Tennesseans used photography to leave a record of themselves as they wished to be remembered. Even when we are not able to identify the people who sat for these portraits, we can still learn something about them and their times through the way they presented themselves in photographs. As for the unidentified woman above, this portrait was likely made in the 1870s. Because of her age and residence in Tennessee, we know that this woman may have been enslaved prior to Emancipation. In a courageous act of self-fashioning, this woman went to the white-owned studio of Rodney Poole on the corner of Union and Cherry Streets in Nashville to have her portrait made. Wearing a stylish and respectable dress, she posed confidently against the luxurious studio set, her chin upturned, her gaze confident and direct. After printing, the photograph was hand-tinted to add the image’s only touch of color: a blue pattern on the woman’s headscarf.
Photographs share stories.
Andrew Feiler, Frank Brinkley & Charles Brinkley, Sr.—Educators, Brothers, Rosenwald School Former Students, 2021. Tennessee State Museum Collection, (2023.1)
When photographer Andrew Feiler first learned about Rosenwald Schools in 2015, he became fascinated by the program that helped create schools for Black children in the early 1900s rural South, a partnership between Julius Rosenwald, philanthropist and president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and Booker T. Washington, president and founder of Tuskegee Institute. Shedding new light on an important chapter in history that remains unknown for many, Feiler used photography to document over one hundred surviving Rosenwald School buildings along with the people who attended, cared for, and preserved those schools. Feiler created the portrait above of Frank Brinkley and Charles Brinkley, Sr., of Sumner County, which was recently acquired by the Museum, as part of this project. The Brinkleys were students at the Cairo School, where their father was a teacher, and the brothers themselves became educators and champions of preservation. A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America is on view at the Tennessee State Museum through May 21, 2023.
The thousands of photographs in the Museum’s collection each have their own stories to tell. Photographs are not just visual images. They are also tangible, material objects. Photographs can be displayed on a wall, sent through the mail, kept close to the body in a pocket or locket, or hidden away in an attic or scrapbook. All of these interactions between person and thing influence the meaning of the photograph. Worn edges on a cabinet card, a wrinkled surface on a silver gelatin print, or a broken clasp on a daguerreotype case are all more than mere condition issues: these material qualities can testify to how photographs were used and loved by their owners. When we learn from photographs, we consider not just the image but the ways the photograph was used when we interpret photographs in our collection.
Visitors can explore some of the Museum’s vast photography collection through our National Photography Month Online Exhibition. In a generation when photography is more accessible and ubiquitous than ever before, photographs remain powerful objects that tell Tennessee stories.
Candice Candeto is the Senior Curator of Fine Art of the Tennessee State Museum
Sources
Alley, Richard J. “The Mind’s Eye: Saj Crone.” Memphis Magazine, 10 November 2014, memphismagazine.com/culture/saj-crone/.
“Bryn Mawr Holds Memorial Service for Miss Trevania Dallas Dudley,” Nashville Banner, February 17, 1924.
Cheng, Alicia Yin and Erin Barnett. “Victorian Mothers Hid Themselves in Their Babies’ Photos.” The Atlantic, 12 May 2020. www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/05/victorian-mothers-hidden-photos-their-babies/611347/.
Feiler, Andrew. A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools That Changed America. University of Georgia Press, 2021.
“Jack Spencer.” Douglas Flanders & Associates, 2022. www.flandersart.com/jack-spencer.
Jenkins, Earnestine. Race, Representation, and Photography in 19th Century Memphis: from Slavery to Jim Crow. London, Ashgate Press, 2016.
Marshall, Jennifer Jane. “Nashville, New York, Paris, and Nashville: William Edmondson, Mobilized and Unmoved.” American Art, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Summer 2017), pp. 69-76.