(PHOTOGRAPHY) BATTEY CORNELIUS MARION Thompson Coles of Alab

Sale 2308 - Lot 506

Unsold

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

(PHOTOGRAPHY.) BATTEY, CORNELIUS MARION. "Thompson Coles of Alabama, 97 years old." [written in pencil on the reverse]. Original silver print photograph 7-1/2 x 10 inches; blind stamp of "Photographic Division, C. M. Battey, photographic director Tuskegee Institute, Alabama" in the lower right corner; faint paper-clip impression at the top blank margin, with no significant affect on the photograph at all; small closed tear to the bottom, blank margin; the number "48" in the negative. Tuskegee, circa 1920's

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A touching portrait of Thompson Coles at age ninety-seven, seated in front of a cabin, presumably his home. Given his age, and the probable date of this photograph, Coles was born around 1823, quite likely in slavery. Until 2010, not single photograph by Battey had ever been offered at auction. In 1916, Cornelius Marion Battey (1873-1927) became the head of the new photography department at Tuskegee Institute. Booker T. Washington hired Battey to instruct students in the art of photography. At the same time, Battey became the Institute's official photographer. Portraits of Booker T. Washington, W.E. B. Du Bois, Paul Lawrence Dunbar and others were offered for the first time ever in these rooms in 2010.