"Schuyler, Nelson County," nine photographs taken by Rufus W. Holsinger on December 1, 1915. 

Of the nine photographs, the one included below shows African American laborers within an industrial building in Schuyler, Nelson County (a small town to the south of Charlottesville). No identifying information is known, aside from the title by which the photographs were labelled in the Holsinger ledgers (there are two photographs total, but they are an exact duplicate of one another).

This photograph is included here in that, although not a posed studio portrait of African Americans, it shows actual interactions between white and black citizens at a time when segregation due to Jim Crow laws was in play. It is highly valuable in providing "visual evidence" of that lived environment.  

NOTE that the name with which the portrait is labelled (or, labelled "untitled") is not necessarily the name of the sitter(s) in the portrait, but rather the name of the person who paid for the portrait when it was taken (the date and name associated with each photograph is from the business ledgers of R. W. Holsinger). 

Below: X03659AB

Sources

- "Schuyler, Nelson County" 1915-12-01 photograph in UVA Library Catalogue (X03659AB)
  

SEE ALSO:

Holsinger Image Gallery of African Americans

J. F. Bell Funeral Home Records

Charlottesville City Directory, 1914-15 [Hathi Trust] 

1870 & 1910 U. S. Census - Charlottesville & Esmont Communities

First published: March 5, 2021

Return to the Holsinger Main Page or African-American Portraiture List of Names