July 2011

Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection

Photograph Collection

C1: 162
ca.1909–1979
approx. 1,360 glass-plate and film negatives 

C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. Thomas Rose, October 4, 1945 (vdlp_suffolk_ng0156)

The Hamblin Studio Collection represents the collective output of four Suffolk photographers working throughout the 20th century. Their photos represents a variety of subjects, including portraiture, sporting events, fraternal organizations, medical facilities, public utilities, local unions, manufacturing plants (in particular Planters Peanuts), and schools, including black private schools and segregated and integrated public schools. As well as being a good general portrait of 20th-century Virginia, the Hamblin Studio Collection is an excellent documentary resource for African American community life in Suffolk. 

Note: The collection includes images from the city of Nansemond prior to 1974, when it merged with the independent city of Suffolk. 

Arrangement and access:
The entire collection is available through the Library’s online collections searchable by keyword and date. 

Related resources and collections:
C1: 163 Hamblin Studio Service Station Photograph Collection

  • C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. Suffolk Jubilee Quartet, October 6, 1945 (vdlp_suffolk_ng0088)
    C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. Suffolk Jubilee Quartet, October 6, 1945 (vdlp_suffolk_ng0088)
  • C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. Mrs. Boykins (vdlp_suffolk_ng0256)
    C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. Mrs. Boykins (vdlp_suffolk_ng0256)
  • C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. May Queen - Booker T. Washington, May 10, 1940 (vdlp_suffolk_ng0118)
    C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. May Queen – Booker T. Washington, May 10, 1940 (vdlp_suffolk_ng0118)
  • C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. Suffolk High School orchestra (vdlp_suffolk_ng0341)
    C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. Suffolk High School orchestra (vdlp_suffolk_ng0341)
  • C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. Market - exterior view, January 25, 1951 (vdlp_suffolk_ng0153a)
    C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. Market – exterior view, January 25, 1951 (vdlp_suffolk_ng0153a)
  • C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. Whaleyville High School baseball team (vdlp_suffolk_ng0285)
    C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. Whaleyville High School baseball team (vdlp_suffolk_ng0285)
  • C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church (vdlp_suffolk_ng0300)
    C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church (vdlp_suffolk_ng0300)
  • C1:162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection. Rev. James, September 26, 1949 (vdlp_suffolk_ng0202c)
    C1:162 Hamblin Studio
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Life Scenes of a Confederate Soldier

Ephemera Collection, Print Collection

C1: 011
ca.1865
12 lithographic cards, 2 x 3 inches

C1: 011 Life Scenes of a Confederate Soldier (LVA 11_1148_002)

C1: 011 Life Scenes of a Confederate Soldier (LVA 11_1148_004)

The mild pastels of these lithographic novelty cards belie their content, which is uncharacteristically downbeat for Southern wartime images. They feature Dixie caricatures populating scenes of defeat and despair, such as a man in gray—who appears to be lonesome, cold, and hungry—reminiscing about the “good times” of 1861. Most of these “life scenes” are not historically specific. “A Flank Movement” visually puns military action, showing a hungry soldier armed with a stiletto stalking an oblivious pig. “Heroes Still,” apparently a post-War scene, or one anticipating the fruits of pursuing a lost cause, shows humbled white Southerners tilling their own fields. Other scenes include “In a Bad Place,” “First Winter,” “Homesick,” “In the Trenches,” “The Vidette,” “The Camp Darkey,” “Following Stonewall,” and a sea battle captioned “No. 290.” The cards were originally held together into a dainty, homemade fascicle, fashioned from sackcloth, which includes the handwritten title of the collection along with an almost indecipherable name written in pencil: “Hope Stewart.” 

Provenance:
Donated, 1951

References:
Six of the images were reproduced in Cavalcade (winter, 1951).

  • C1: 011 Life Scenes of a Confederate Soldier
    C1: 011 Life Scenes of a Confederate Soldier
  • C1: 011 Life Scenes of a Confederate Soldier
    C1: 011 Life Scenes of a Confederate Soldier
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Stereograph File

Photograph Collection

C1: 060
1860s–1910s
approx. 318 stereographs (most albumen) and other photographic prints mounted on 4 x 7 inch cards 

C1:060 Stereograph File. Building spire of Lutheran Church, Winchester, Va. (LVA 07_0786_329)

Stereographic views were a popular nineteenth-century novelty that enabled photographs to be viewed in three dimensions. What appear to be identical photographic images paired adjacently on a cardboard support are actually slightly different and, when viewed through the lenses of a stereoscope, they “merge” to yield an unexpectedly convincing 3D effect. The Library’s Stereograph Collection contains over 300 images from many prominent photographers from the Civil War to the World War I eras. Photographs and publishers represented in the collection include the Keystone View Co., George S. Cook, Lee Gallery, D. H. Anderson, E. S. Lumpkin, Underwood & Underwood, George Ennis, Selden & Co., the Kilburn Bros., and Timothy O’Sullivan. Most of the images offer views of Richmond and other Virginia locales, such as the Old Stone House (now the Poe Museum), interiors of Washington’s Tomb, Salt Point, the Executive Mansion and Capitol Grounds (including the long-vanished wrought iron gazebo that housed the statue of Henry Clay), Monumental Church, and Libby Prison. There are also several rare photographs of Blue Ridge Springs and other long-defunct Virginia resorts, as well as a one-of-a-kind series of homemade stereographs with views of late- nineteenth-century Petersburg. 

Arrangement and access:
The collection is available for view on Digitool.

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Virginia Legislature Photograph Collection

Photograph Collection

C1: 169
1857–ongoing
average size 11 x 15 inches 

C1:169 Virginia Legislature Photograph Collection (LVA 09_0669_014_1940)

C1:169 Virginia Legislature Photograph Collection

The state’s bicameral legislature, consisting of the House of Delegates and the Senate, was confirmed in the Virginia Constitution of 1776, but can trace its lineage directly to the 1619 Jamestown House of Burgesses, making it effectively the oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere. The present Virginia Constitution requires that the House consist of 90–100 members and the Senate of 33–40 members. Arranged chronologically, the Virginia Legislature Photograph Collection contains annual composite portraits of the General Assembly, beginning near the advent of photography in 1857, which are primarily the work of Richmond’s Foster Studio, and later Dementi Studio. The rosters witness the emergence of women, and the re-emergence of black Virginians, in the realm of state policymaking.  Although not every year is represented in the collection, in many cases the rosters feature the only known photographs of early Virginia lawmakers. 

Arrangement and access:
The entire collection is available on DigiTool

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