Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

MSS 16901, African American programs and photographs from Roanoke, and Wytheville, Virginia, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was a purchase from Caroliniana Rare Books to the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library on 23 April 2025. Acquired from an estate.

Content Description

This collection contains four programs and eight photographs documenting mid-twentieth-century African American life in Roanoke and Wytheville, Virginia. Two programs for Debutante Balls hosted by "The Altruists," a club for Black women in Roanoke, are dated 1954 and 1977. The Altruist Club program for 1954 has "Stella Ednise Miller" in blue ink on the cover. A 1958 pamphlet for a Virginia Congress Colored P.T.A. annual work conference held at Scott Memorial School in Wytheville discusses "The P.T.A. Role in Fields of Education and Community." A program for the Lucy Addison High School Choir's annual Christmas concert is dated 1964. Eight undated printed photographs range in subject matter. Six photographs that are in color feature children sightseeing, a man seated with two children, a museum visit, a woman standing alongside two children, a boy smiling, and a woman smiling. Two photos in black and white feature four Black men in suits exchanging greetings, and a group of young Black children posed in rows with their names written in ink on the photograph.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• African American children
• African American families
• African Americans -- Photographs
• Debutante balls
• Roanoke County (Va.)
• programs (documents)