Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation

MSS 16756, African American girl's birthday photograph album, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was purchased from Michael Laird Rare Books, LLC. by the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library on 10 January 2023.

Content Description

This collection contains a photo album containing fifteen original black-and-white photographs from the 1960s of a birthday celebration of a young Black girl and her family.Exceptional depiction of an 11 year old's birthday party with all of it's innocence, happiness and absence of the racial world that lives outside the doors of their grandmother's nice home.The children are wearing cone hats and there is dancing, presents, game playing, a birthday cake, blowing out candles, and an abundance of playfulness.The photographs, 3.25" x 3.25", are in plastic sleeves in a contemporary square, spiral-bound, blue leatherette album.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• African American families
• African Americans -- Photographs
• Children