Lincoln in Black and White 1910-1925

This video contains selections from the book, “Lincoln in Black and White 1910-1925” by Douglas Keister and Edward F. Zimmer.

Hosts and guests dressed up for a backyard picnic. (John Johnson / Courtesy Douglas Keister / NMAAHC, SI)

Smithsonian Magazine

Lost and Found Again: Photos of African-Americans on the Plains

By Joseph Stromberg

February 2013

“Douglas Keister has spent the past four decades traveling the country to photograph subjects as varied as architecture, folk art and cemeteries. Over the years, as he moved from his hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, to several different cities in California, he carted around a heavy box of 280 antique glass-plate negatives that he’d bought when he was 17 from a friend who’d found them at a garage sale. ‘I thought, Why the heck am I keeping these things?’ he says.”

“Then, in 1999, Keister’s mother sent him an article she’d seen in the Lincoln Journal Star saying historians in Lincoln had unearthed a few dozen glass negatives that featured portraits of the city’s small African-American population from the 1910s and ’20s, an era from which few other photos survived. Keister compared the images with his negatives, and ‘I just thought, Wow,’ he says. ‘The style of the pictures, the backdrops used—they looked the exact same.’ Almost by accident, he realized, he had conserved a rare glimpse into the everyday lives of an African-American community on the Great Plains.”

“Now Keister, who is 64 and lives in Chico, California, is donating 60 large-scale prints made from his collection for display in a permanent home—the National Museum of African American History and Culture, under construction and due to open on the National Mall in 2015. ‘They speak to a time and a place where African-Americans were treated as second-class citizens but lived their lives with dignity,’ says curator Michèle Gates Moresi. ‘You can read about it and hear people talk about it, but to actually see the images is something entirely different.’ ”

To read the complete article, please visit “Lost and Found Again: Photos of African-Americans on the Plains“.

Toby James and his children Myrtha, Edna and Mauranee. (John Johnson / Courtesy Douglas Keister / NMAAHC, SI)

'Mother and laughing child' by John Johnson, c. 1915, Collection Nebraska State Historical Society, Image courtesy of ExhibitsUSA Via Santa Clara University

The de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University

Recovered Views: African American Portraits, 1912-1925

“The black-and-white portraits were made by an anonymous African-American who lived and worked in Lincoln, Nebraska in the early part of the twentieth century. Made between about 1912 and 1925, these portraits are more than just stunning images—they document life in a vibrant, middle-class black neighborhood in a small Midwestern city, a portion of society rarely depicted in any medium. Moreover, they provide an insider’s view of a small but thriving African American community during a period of transforming and increasingly charged race relations.”

“The photographs are attributed to John Johnson, a lifelong resident of Lincoln. Johnson, the son of a Civil War veteran, was born in 1879 and graduated from Lincoln High School in 1899. He briefly attended the University of Nebraska and worked most of his life at different jobs, including that of a janitor for the post office and a drayman (cart or wagon driver). Johnson’s subjects were diverse, ranging from poised individuals in their “Sunday best” attire to architecture (including buildings such as Quinn Chapel African Methodist Church, the Miller and Paine department store, and the Lincoln courthouse). Community elders remember Johnson traveling by horse and buggy, carrying his camera and tripod, and taking photographs throughout the town. Johnson continued to live in Lincoln until his death in 1953. However, no glass-plate negatives dated after 1925 have been found. Why would such an accomplished photographer stop producing images in the middle of his career? This question has led some researchers to propose that perhaps another photographer was involved. Some suggest that Earl McWilliams—another Lincoln-based photographer—may be solely responsible, or that he may have worked collaboratively with Johnson. McWilliams left Lincoln for California in 1925, a move which may explain why no images produced after that date have been found in the area. ”

To read the complete article, please visit “Recovered Views: African American Portraits, 1912-1925“.