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Amazing Vintage Photos of Black Women From Washington, D.C.'s Scurlock Studios

   
YWCA camp for girls, Highland Beach Girls, 1930. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)

In 2015, author Nichelle Gainer will release the second edition of her much-lauded coffee table book “Vintage Black Glamour” (Rocket 88 Books), which celebrates the glamour of early 20th century black women through hundreds of archived photographs that Gainer found over the course of 10 years of research. Its impending release comes at a time when a rising generation of black women filmmakers, writers, and directors, like Shonda Rhimes, Ava DuVernay, Mara Brock Akil, Issa Rae and others, has been instrumental in presenting the visual narrative of black women in front of and behind the lens.

 
 

In the center of documenting black beauty and glamour in its many forms throughout the early 20th century was the Scurlock Studio, the preeminent photo studio for Washington’s black community, headed by Addison Scurlock and his two sons, Robert and George.

The collection of images in the book “Picturing The Promise: Scurlock Studio and Black Washington” (Smithsonian Books, 2009) features some of the most impressive photographs of  black life–men, women and girls–from the period. Scurlock Studio was astute at reflecting the crosssection of black glamour.  Scurlock photographed black women and girls as they were: prosperous, carefree, elegant and fashionable in fur and sequins, nurturing and strong, and forever poised.  They were singers, writers, soldiers, dancers, athletes, mothers. The images offer a range of black femininity and force at a time in history when their visual representation was extremely limited.

Effie Moore dancers, 1920s. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)
Lt. Alma Jackson. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)
“Flappers” at outdoor sports event, probably a football game at Griffith Stadium, 1920s. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)
A woman lying down on the floor, smoking cigarette, surrounded by record albums, including “Lonely Girl” by Julie London, released 1956. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)
A woman, associated with the Howard University School of Music, playing a cello. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)
Woman standing in a kitchen in Eastland Gardens. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)
Mother sitting on chair with three children around her, piano to left. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)
Louise Robins Hat Show, December 1949. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)
Nurses feeding chickens participating in Cornell Johnson experiment at Howard University. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)
Group of women standing on exterior steps wearing formal dresses. Two groups of three girls stand at the front. The group to the right hold long bugles. At the top of the steps a woman wearing a crown and holding a bouquet of flowers is seated on a throne with two girls standing next to her. Possibly a May Queen or other pageant event.
Women’s Tennis Team. (Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)
African American woman sitting in a folding chair under a palm tree. (Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)
Women walking out of Miner Teacher’s College on Georgia Avenue NW. Alumni included Emma V. Brown, the first African American to teach in D.C public schools, and Major James E. Walker, a World War I veteran. (Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)
Dr. Anna J. Cooper, in her garden, home and patio, 1930. (Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)
National Council of Negro Women Committee, with Dorothy Height, June 22, 1954. (Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American History)
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