Wade Hall Collection of American Letters: Wilson family photographs

Title

Wade Hall Collection of American Letters: Wilson family photographs

Date

1898-1928, 1944-1957, undated (inclusive)

Extent

0.3 Cubic Feet

Subjects

African Americans -- Education.

African Americans -- Kentucky -- Louisville

Mississippi

Schools -- Kentucky.

Arrangement

Collection is arranged by format. The Wade Hall Collection of American Letters has been processed into discrete collections based on provenance.

Finding Aid Author

Sarah Coblentz

Preferred Citation

2009ms132.0161: [identification of item], Wade Hall Collection of American Letters: Wilson family photographs, 1898-1928, 1944-1957, undated, University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.

Repository

University of Kentucky

Biography / History

The Wilson family is an African-American family from Louisville, Kentucky, which includes Mary A. Wilson (b. 1882) and Charles Wilson (b. 1881), their son Florizel A. Wilson (b. 1903), his wife Earnestine E. Davis (b. 1906), and their two daughters Elah S. Wilson (b. 1925) and Florestine Wilson (b. 1931). Mary Wilson may have been a schoolteacher, attending the State Normal School for Colored Persons in the late 1890s or early 1900s. She married Charles about 1901 or 1902. Florizel worked multiple jobs, including working as an elevator operator for a railroad company and a porter.

American Letters collector Wade Hall (1934-2015) was a native of Union Springs, Alabama. Starting in 1962, he lived in Louisville, where he taught English and chaired the English and Humanities/Arts programs at Kentucky Southern College and Bellarmine University. He also taught at the University of Illinois and the University of Florida. He held degrees from Troy State University (B.S.), the University of Alabama (M.A.), and the University of Illinois (Ph.D.). He served for two years in the U.S. Army in the mid-fifties. Dr. Hall was the author of books, monographs, articles, plays, and reviews relating to Kentucky, Alabama, and Southern history and literature. His most recent books include A Visit with Harlan Hubbard; High Upon a Hill: A History of Bellarmine College; A Song in Native Pastures: Randy Atcher's Life in Country Music; and Waters of Life from Conecuh Ridge.

Scope and Content

The Wilson family photographs (dated 1898-1928, 1944-1957, undated; 0.3 cubic feet; 1 folder, 5 photograph boxes) comprise photographs and a few postcards, notes, and clippings that document the Wilson family in Louisville, Kentucky and Mississippi from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. The photographs include loose images, photo albums, and negatives that document the activities of the Wilson family, including Mary Wilson attending school, members of the Wilson family visiting friends, portraits of friends and relatives, celebration of holidays, and images taken by persons at work. The postcards discuss inviting Florizel Wilson and family to visit friends in Indianapolis, thanks for help, and advertising the availability of a credit line. Some of the postcards are photographic, portraying places in Arkansas and Indiana. The notes include addresses of friends and jokes for speeches, and the clippings include details of a person's travel west, a sonnet to Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and announcement of a woman's appointment as inspectress of The Grand Lodge of Kentucky.

The Wilson family photographs are part of the Wade Hall Collection of American letters, which includes correspondence and diaries from all over North America covering the time period of the Civil to Korean Wars. The materials were collected by Wade Hall and document everyday men and women.

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to researchers by appointment.

Use Restrictions

The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.