{"id":2503,"date":"2011-07-26T13:20:43","date_gmt":"2011-07-26T18:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=2503"},"modified":"2012-03-30T10:47:17","modified_gmt":"2012-03-30T15:47:17","slug":"notes-from-a-photograph-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=2503","title":{"rendered":"Notes from a Photograph Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although the Oliver F. Atkins Photograph Collection<\/a> contains tens of thousands of prints, negatives, and slides, there is also a small amount of papers that consist of handwritten notes, correspondence, and caption guidance forms.\u00a0 These documents assist with identification, such as the Ku Klux Klan photographs from December 1965 for a Saturday Evening Post story. Many images were not included in the final story, “Portait of a Klansman,” published in the April 9, 1966 issue, including the image below of a Klavern meeting hall in Ayden, North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

From the caption guidelines: "General view of Klavern hall in Ayden, N.C. At left is open casket; alter is in center where flags and cross is; this is pretty typical of interior of a Klavern hall." (December 1965) Oliver F. Atkins photograph collection, C0036, Folder: Ku Klux Klan (1965) Photo \u00a9 SEPS<\/p><\/div>\n

I was able to identify the subject and location because of the detailed caption guidance forms that are filed with the photographs. The captions are what Atkins typed up for the editors at the Saturday Evening Post and describe almost every single frame of each negative strip and are very helpful for identification.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

SEP Caption Guidance Form (December 1965), Oliver F. Atkins Photograph Collection, C0036, Folder: Ku Klux Klan, 1965<\/p><\/div>\n

The caption guidelines for this story also noted that one of the three men in this photograph below committed suicide the day after the photograph was made. This was another photograph not included in the Saturday Evening Post story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

From the caption guidelines: "Inside the modest home of Grand Dragon James R. Jones -- this is the living room. Left to right: Grand Dragon James R. Jones; Col. of the Security Guard Grady Mars (he killed himself the next day) and Pete Young of a Raleigh TV station." (December 1965) Oliver F. Atkins photograph collection, C0036, Folder title: Ku Klux Klan, 1965 Photo \u00a9 SEPS<\/p><\/div>\n

The descriptions are part of what give the Atkins collection a research value that is not readily apparent.\u00a0 Most researchers request images from the Atkins collection for illustrations rather than use the collection itself as basis of their research.\u00a0 This additional information retained by Atkins gives these two-dimensional images an unexpected depth that opens up other avenues of research, such as the documentation of right-wing extremism by journalists in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

Once the Atkins collection is reprocessed, we hope to revisit the caption guidelines and add some of this description to the online finding aid. Until then, we are going to scan the hard copy finding aid created in the 1980s, which contains information transcribed from those caption guidelines, and link that legacy finding aid to the new version so that researchers can search the photographs at the item-level. Although the arrangement of the collection has changed, many of the folder titles from the old finding aid will be the same in the new one and easy to locate.<\/p>\n

This collection is being reprocessed with funds provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission<\/a>.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although the Oliver F. Atkins Photograph Collection contains tens of thousands of prints, negatives, and slides, there is also a small amount of papers that consist of handwritten notes, correspondence, and caption guidance forms.\u00a0 These documents assist with identification, such as the Ku Klux Klan photographs from December 1965 for a Saturday Evening Post story. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,198],"tags":[247,52,91],"class_list":["post-2503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-photography-collections","tag-ku-klux-klan","tag-ollie-atkins","tag-saturday-evening-post"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Ep5i-En","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8232,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=8232","url_meta":{"origin":2503,"position":0},"title":"Before and Beyond 1968: Gender and Race Ideology in the KKK","author":"admin","date":"January 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This post was written by Tavia Wager, Research Services Assistant. Special Collections Research Center\u2019s (SCRC) exhibit \u201cBefore and Beyond 1968: Three Civil Rights Movements in America,\u201d displays materials from the nineteenth century to the present day relating to the civil rights movement. The exhibition includes materials from the KKK in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "exhibits"","block_context":{"text":"exhibits","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/KKK-toward-immigration-sm.jpg?fit=998%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/KKK-toward-immigration-sm.jpg?fit=998%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/KKK-toward-immigration-sm.jpg?fit=998%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/KKK-toward-immigration-sm.jpg?fit=998%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":303,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=303","url_meta":{"origin":2503,"position":1},"title":"Marriott, a Restauranteur Before a Hotel Magnate","author":"Bob Vay","date":"February 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Nearly everyone over the age of 40 who grew up in the Washington, D.C. area must recall either eating at or driving by a Hot Shoppes restaurant. The brainchild of J. Willard Marriott, Hot Shoppes featured family-style comfort food, such as burgers, meatloaf, steaks, soups, fries, milkshakes, and numerous desserts.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photography collections"","block_context":{"text":"Photography collections","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=198"},"img":{"alt_text":"J. Willard Mariott in front of a Hot Shoppes in 1948 ","src":"https:\/\/specialcollections.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/02\/atkins_blog_1.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5377,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=5377","url_meta":{"origin":2503,"position":2},"title":"Two New Exhibitions in SC&A Feature Items from Collection of Rare Books by Jan Morris and Oliver Atkins Photographs","author":"Bob Vay","date":"October 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"SC&A has completed two new exhibits of materials from its holdings. \u00a0On exhibit displays a group of books by historian and travel writer, Jan Morris, while the other features photographs from photographer, Oliver Atkins. Both exhibitions run through December 2015. \"Excerpts from a Life Well Traveled: The University Libraries' Jan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "exhibits"","block_context":{"text":"exhibits","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"Jan Morris, as photographed in 1974. ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/janmorris_headshot_f423aeb0ce-238x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1397,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=1397","url_meta":{"origin":2503,"position":3},"title":"Photographer Oliver Atkins Saw the Rise and Fall of Two 20th Century Cultural Icons","author":"Bob Vay","date":"December 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Oliver Atkins (1917-1977) photographed some of the world's most recognizable individuals and created some of the world's most recognizable images.\u00a0 A photographer for The Saturday Evening Post from 1946-1968, Atkins captured both the national\/ international political scene and human interest stories from mid-century America. In a recent article, The Saturday\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "SCRC interest"","block_context":{"text":"SCRC interest","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=5"},"img":{"alt_text":"ollie_blog","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/ollie_blog.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":986,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=986","url_meta":{"origin":2503,"position":4},"title":"Image from SC&A is Part of Archives Month in Virginia Poster","author":"Bob Vay","date":"October 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"An image from SC&A's Ollie Atkins Photograph Collection is featured in the poster for The Library of Virginia's Archives in Virginia celebration. The collection contains photographs, negatives and contact sheets dating from 1943 to 1974. The images, numbering nearly 57,000, are representative of his work with The American Red Cross,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"Poster for Archives Month in Virginia, 2009","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/sideIndex1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6508,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=6508","url_meta":{"origin":2503,"position":5},"title":"The President and The King or Art Imitates Life","author":"Bob Vay","date":"May 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I was traveling on an airplane recently and stumbled across an interesting film while browsing the in-flight entertainment options at my seat. Elvis and Nixon is an eighty-six-minute history\/comedy treatment of the infamous December 21, 1970 meeting between \u201cThe President and The King\u201d. \u00a0The film features Kevin Spacey as Richard\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photography collections"","block_context":{"text":"Photography collections","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=198"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/nixelv.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2503"}],"version-history":[{"count":54,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3395,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503\/revisions\/3395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}