LibGuides: Charleston's Historically Black Photography Studios: Primary Sources

The Coards Studio Photographs and Records pertain to a photography studio owned and operated by Joseph and Rachel Coards from the 1930’s to the 1990’s, previously located at 78 Line Street. The collection contains images of families, organizations, individuals, community and school events, and architecture.

[Unidentifed couple]

The Walter N. Boags collection pertains to the Boags Modern Arts Photography Studio, previously located at 32 Spring Street, from 1949 to the late 1970’s and Boags’ freelance photography through the 1980’s. The collection consists of black-and-white and color negatives and prints focused on individuals, groups, social and cultural organizations, school photographs, and architecture.

[Unidentified couple]

The George Gong Lee collection documents the work of the G. G. Lee Photography Studio, formerly at 2296 Mt. Pleasant Street. The bulk of this collection contains images and negatives of school and church groups, weddings, family reunions, community and historical events up until 2010.

The George Gong Lee collection is currently being processed and is not yet fully accessible to researchers.

Finding Aid to the Coards Studio Photographs and Records
The collection consists of business records, correspondence, photographs, negatives, and personal material. Business records include handwritten contacts and notes pertaining to customers' requests, licenses, correspondence, receipts, and supplies.
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The Coards Studio was a photography studio owned and operated by Joseph and Rachel Coards until the late 20th century. The studio was located at 78 Line Street in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Coards photographed African American families and individuals in the studio and various events and groups outside of the studio, such as graduations, weddings, and other ceremonies. The studio also produced hand-colored restorations and reprints of many families' photographs from Charleston and surrounding areas.

Finding Aid to the Walter N. Boags papers
The collection consists mostly of black-and-white and color negatives (with some prints and proofs) of portraits and other subjects taken by Boags from 1945 through the 1980s. Most images were originally housed in brown paper bags that contained varying amounts of information about the person who ordered the photos. Thus information for many images may not be the name of the subject but the name of the customer paying for the image. All these original labeled materials have been preserved and are housed with the associated negatives or positives. The collection is divided into several series.
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Studio portraits are arranged alphabetically within the decades of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Cap-and-gown portraits of high school graduates are also arranged alphabetically within the same decades. Weddings, listed alphabetical by the groom's last name, are arranged within the spans 1950-1969, the 1970s, and the 1980s. Mourning and memorial images of the deceased and images of schools, groups, businesses and commercial sites are listed in a name index available in the repository.

Schools include Avery Normal School, Bonds-Wilson High School, Buist, Burke High School, Calvary School, Jenkins Orphanage, Greshem-Meggett School, Immaculate Conception School, Kings Highway Elementary School, Laing School, Mary Ford School, Liberty Hill Elementary School, Simonton School, Sol Legare, and others.

Sites and groups photographed include The Blue and White Store, the Breech Tea Room, Central Baptist Church, Ebenezer AME Church, Ebony Beauty School, the Hotel James, Larimer School, the Lincoln Theater, the Marion Grill, Morris Brown AME Church, Mt. Zion Church, North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, Purvis Drugs, Safety Cab Company, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Taylor's Bakery, and Your Flower Shop.

Groups photographed include sororities such as Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Businesses and professional associations include the Bakers Union, Charleston Funeral Directors, Palmetto Beauty School, and South Carolina Funeral Directors; civic organizations such as the American Legion, Prince Hall Masonic Lodge, Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). Civil servants like members of the Charleston Fire Department, Charleston Police Department, and Practical Nurses, are represented. Music and dance groups (some religiously oriented) include the Fordham Gospel Singers, Gospel Singers, Highlettics, Louis Gaillard and His Royal Sultans, Metronome All Stars, the Modernettes, Rama Gama dancers, Sons of Grace, Southernaires, Starlight Singers, Voices of Praise. Church-related and religious groups are represented, including Charity Baptist Day Care, Deacon Baptist, Gethsemane Baptist, Plymouth Congregational Church, Hebron United Presbyterian, Greater Refuge of Christ Apostolic Guild, Greater St. Luke's AME Church, chapters 215 and 360 of the Order of the Eastern Star, Shiloh Church, St. Patrick's Catholic Church, St. Peter's AME Church, and Zion Olivet Church. Women's clubs include the Entre Nous Bridge Club, Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, and the Phillis Wheatley Literary and Social Club. Other community groups include the Bears Athletic Club, Reid Home Center, and Shaw Community Center.

This series includes negatives and prints produced by the Boags Modern Arts Photography Studio based on 19th and 20th century images brought in by clients to be copied. Includes one image by African American photographer Charles Macbeth.

Business-related material includes legal work consisting of photographs from traffic accidents and injuries. It also includes forms, cancelled checks, and some promotional materials.

Personal material includes some data on the Hamilton family, Buist School certificates, materials on the Westchester Neighborhood Association, Boags' class notes from the Renouard School of Embalmers, and material on the Scipio Williams, Jr. American Legion Auxiliary.

CHS Black Photographer Collections External from CofC

Michael Francis Blake photographs, circa 1912-1934
Collection at Duke University. Michael Francis Blake was one of Charleston, South Carolina's first African American studio photographers. Collection consists of 118 photographs, mostly studio portraits taken by Michael Francis Blake from about 1912 to 1934, with some outdoor settings.
Edwin A. Harleston and Edwina Harleston Whitlock family papers
Collection at Emory. Edwin Augustus Harleston (1882-1931), African American artist and activist, was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He married Elise Forrest (1891-1970), a photographer, in 1920. n 1922, Edwin and Elise founded the Harleston Studio, a portrait and photography studio created to promote the couple's artistic collaboration.