Painter Collection

The Painter (Milton McFarland, Sr.) Collection consists of images of 1,073 black-and-white photographic prints in two albums. A self-taught photographer, Milton McFarland Painter Sr. produced images of Friars Point, Mississippi, regions surrounding Coahoma County, and vacation stops across the western United States, Mexico, and Canada from about 1912 to the 1920s. Painter was especially interested in the Mississippi River, its levees and lakes, and the steamboats that made frequent stops in Friars Point. He used a Kodak camera that generated three-inch by five-inch (3"x5") negatives, which he meticulously cataloged and filed.

Front of store, ca. 1900

  

Back of store, ca. 1900

  

Fishing trip - patience, ca. 1900

  

Fishing trip - critical moment, ca. 1900

  

Fishing trip - hung again, ca. 1900

  

Fishing trip - second morning's catch, ca. 1900

J. C. Coovert Collection

Photographer J. C. (John Calvin) Coovert was born in Danville, Kentucky, in 1862 and arrived in Greenville, Mississippi, around 1887. His studio, Patorno and Coovert, won a gold medal from the Paris Exposition in 1889 for "best state views." He went into business for himself around 1891, operating as Coovert's Photograph Gallery in Greenville, Memphis, Vicksburg, and Yazoo City, among other locations. He eventually settled in downtown Memphis, where he worked until his death, at age 75, on August 18, 1937.

Coovert is best known for his photographs of the cotton culture and the Mississippi River. However, Coovert's documentary photography covered a wide range of work activities and social conditions, including the programs of the Memphis Health, Police, and Public Works Departments.

These photos come from here.

Camp Ben Humphreys, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1897

  

Refugee camp, 1897

  

 Throwing up a new levee on the river front. 

Old levee was sloughing, March 30, 1897

  

African American men and women picking cotton, ca. 1900

  

African American men on loading docks, ca. 1900

  

The Robert E. Lee, ca. 1900

Luther Hamilton Photo Collection

The Luther Hamilton Photograph Collection documents the life of a small southern town during the first half of the twentieth century through images of houses, stores, railroad stations, schools, sports teams, street scenes, parades, weddings, and more. A significant portion of the collection deals with agriculture, especially the farming and marketing of tomatoes and cabbage, and agrarian celebrations such as the annual Crystal Springs Tomato Festival.

The nearly 1,000 photographs were taken or collected by Luther Myles Hamilton, Sr., (1869-1944) of Crystal Springs, Mississippi, and his son, Luther Myles Hamilton, Jr. (1912-1994). Much of the collection is formal portrait photography taken in the father's studio, and includes town leaders Augustus Lotterhos, 'the Father of Crystal Springs,' and Bryant Wesley Matthis, 'the Cabbage King,' as well as people of various ages and races.

Cabbage field

  

Crystal Springs High School marching band and drum majorettes

  

Dick Burney’s rural delivery ice trucks. 1930

  

Four unidentified women

  

Tomato industry, 1933

Stewart Collection

The Stewart Photographic Collection consists of black-and-white images from prints of glass plate negatives created by amateur photographers (and brothers) Robert Livingston Stewart and William Percy Stewart of Natchez, Mississippi, around 1890-1905. The photographs are primarily of the Natchez area and focus on the Stewart family and activities such as dedication ceremonies, winter storms, floods, steamboats and river scenes.

Robert Livingston Stewart (October 24, 1854-July 28, 1912) and William Percy Stewart (May 20, 1858-April 25, 1928) were sons of Natchez furniture dealer Robert Hill and Caroline Heermans Stewart, grandsons of Natchez cabinetmaker Robert and Susanna Marschalk Stewart, and great-grandsons of early Mississippi printer Andrew Marschalk. Robert Livingston Stewart worked as an accountant in New York and as a bookkeeper in Natchez. He never married, but around the time of his death he was living with his sister, Mary, and a sister-in-law, Chrissie (married to his brother, Rev. Walter Lee Stewart), in Natchez. He was described on page three of the July 30, 1912, Daily Democrat as "a man of quiet demeanor, always gentle and kind, speaking in low, well modulated tones...." William Percy Stewart's front-page obituary in the April 26, 1928, Natchez Democrat proclaimed William "a man of magnetic personality" who "was Senior Member of oldest Firm in Mississippi—Was Widely Known And Esteemed in This Section." He was a cadet at Jefferson Military College in Washington, Mississippi, and a member of the Natchez Rifles. He married Catherine Schwartz and operated the hardware firm Schwartz and Stewart in Natchez (one of the largest south of Memphis from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries) with his brother-in-law, John Edward Schwartz, leaving the business to his son, Robert Percy Stewart. William's daughters, Catherine and Margaret, appear in several of the photographs.

Bicyclists

  

Family on steps. Currently the home of Dr. Thom. Gandy, 

408 North Pearl Street, ca. 1895

  

Myrtle Bank terrace

  

Outdoor scene

  

 

R. H. Stewart store located in proximity of the Tillmans store. 505 Franklin St, ca. 1890