Visual Resources, Collections
The bulk of the photographic collections consist of black and white prints
and color transparencies taken by staff photographers at Colonial Williamsburg
from the 1940s up to the present. They document the exteriors and interiors
of buildings in the Historic Area, educational programs, objects located in
the Wallace Decorative Arts Museum and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art
Museum, gardens, hotels and restaurants, Colonial Williamsburg employees at
work, special events held at Colonial Williamsburg, and distinguished visitors
to Williamsburg.
The Visual Resources Collection also includes photographic collections relating
to the restoration of Williamsburg in the 1930s. Represented are twenty-six
individual collections containing more than 10,000 images consisting of glass
plate and sheet film negatives and positive master prints. The photographs in
these collections were taken by town residents, Williamsburg Holding Corp. employees,
and professional photographers hired on a contract basis. They document Williamsburg
before, during, and after its restoration to its eighteenth-century appearance.
In addition, Visual Resources contains several named collections of archival
photographs donated by or purchased from individuals who photographed the Historic
Area and the city of Williamsburg.
-
Durant Collection
- One of the most extensive, the Albert Durant Photography Collection, provides a
visual record of the African-American
community in Williamsburg in the 1940s and 1950s.
-
- Architectural Collection
- A photographic record of research undertaken by various architectural
historians affiliated with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation complements
the holdings in the Architectural Collections, located in Special Collections.
- Postcard Collection
- Postcard collections, many of which have been donated to Visual Resources,
further document the history of Colonial Williamsburg in the twentieth century.
See some sample images:
Street scenes,
gardens,
buildings,
costumed personnel
and
programs
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