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Bob Adelman photographs

Call Number

PR 340

Date

1960s-1980s, inclusive

Creator

Adelman, Bob

Extent

2.5 Linear feet in two document boxes and two flat boxes

Language of Materials

This collection is primarily visual. Any text is likely to be in English.

Abstract

Bob Adelman (1930-2016) was an American photographer known for his images of the Civil Rights Movement; this collection holds about 50 of these civil rights-related photographs. Overall, the collection includes about 540 black and white prints of Adelman's work. Most of the photographs depict 1970s urban street life in New York City, especially Harlem, the Bowery and 14th Street in Manhattan and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, as well as Newark, NJ.

Biographical Note

Robert Melvin "Bob" Adelman (1930-2016) was an American photographer known for his images of the Civil Rights Movement. A New York City native, Adelman was born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens, and attended Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. He graduated from Rutgers University in 1951 and received his M.A. in 1953 from Columbia. He volunteered as a photographer in the early 1960s for the Brooklyn chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), opening him to opportunities for documenting the Civil Rights Movement on both the local and national levels. Adelman's documentary interests ranged beyond civil rights of the 1960s to include race relations and social concerns more broadly, themes which are reflected in this collection.

(Sources for the above note include Adelman's obituary in the New York Times; his Wikipedia entry; and the announcement that the Library of Congress had received a major donation of Adelman's work in 2017.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged by subject, with related photographs kept together as presented by the donor. The subject title was generally derived from the captions on some of the photographs. The photographs are also boxed by size: Boxes 1 and 2 hold 8 x 11 (some smaller), Box 3 holds 14 x 11; Box 4 holds 20 x 16.

Scope and Contents

The collection includes about 540 black and white photographs taken by Bob Adelman. Most of the photographs depict 1970s urban street life in New York City, especially Harlem, the Bowery and 14th Street in Manhattan and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. There are many photographs that focus on particular themes within the urban setting, including the fallout from a New York City black-out, the proximity of black and white residents in Newark, NJ, and storefront destruction in Newark, NJ, resulting from the 1967 riots. African-Americans figure prominently in these photographs, though not exclusively.

About 50 of the photographs concern civil rights activism of the early 1960s. These photos range from nationally-recognized figures, especially Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., to anonymous activists, and from events of national import, such as the 1963 March on Washington and protests in Selma and Birmingham, Alabama, to protests against discrimination in Brooklyn.

Some of the photographs focus on particular individuals or personalities, including the television personality David Frost (1939-2013), the writer Michael Harrington (1928-1989), Brooklyn "Super Cops" Dave Greenberg and Bob Hantz, and various born again Christians.

Most of the photographs are undated and this is reflected in the container list. Many of the photographs have a copyright stamp with a date of 1978 or 1979, and this is included in the container list when it appears, but in some cases the photograph may have been taken earlier.

The number of photographs in a particular folder is noted in the container list in (parentheses).

Access Restrictions

Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Use Restrictions

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.

Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as Bob Adelman Photographs, PR 340, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, The New-York Historical Society.

Credit line: Anonymous.

Location of Materials

Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of an anonymous donor, December 2016.

Collection processed by

Larry Weimer

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:51:30 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is written in: English, Latin script.

Processing Information

The collection was processed by archivist Larry Weimer in October 2017. Volunteer Alison Barr prepared the container list.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024