The WPA Historic Houses Drawings Collection includes 140 images of houses, courthouses, churches, mill houses, and taverns, representing 39 Virginia counties. In the early- to mid-1930s, the Virginia State Commission on Conservation and Development’s Division of History and Archaeology received funds from the Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) Federal Art Project to commission five artists to create drawings for a publication on historic Virginia shrines. Like other WPA-funded projects, the artists applied for work through local emergency relief offices before being assigned to the Federal Art Project. Several of the artists also contributed to other New Deal projects at the time, including stamp designs for the National Recovery Act and illustrations for the Index of American Design, a nationwide Federal Art Project. 

Under the direction of Hamilton J. Eckenrode, the commission’s Division of History and Archaeology began making a record of historic buildings in Virginia in 1932. Field assistant (and artist) Rex M. Allyn took photographs of buildings while on assignment to the Division’s Historic Highway Marker project. From 1932 to 1937, Allyn and four other artists—Edward A. Darby, Dorothea A. Farrington, E. Neville Harnsberger, and Elsie J. Mistie—each created numerous pen-and-ink and pencil drawings from the photographs. In some cases, the artists were asked to make adjustments to the architectural details to produce a drawing that more closely represented the original structure. In February 1936, Allyn wrote to Edward Darby regarding photographs of Gunston Hall, Mason Place, and Shellfield, asking him to remove cables that supported the chimney of Gunston Hall, a fence that was shown in front of Mason Place, and a modern porch at Shellfield. He also suggested that Darby “not show the little buildings and additions in the back part of the picture, or the swings and seats scattered about the yard” at Shellfield. The photographs from which the drawings were based are part of the WPA Photograph and Negative Collection at the Library of Virginia. 

At least three of the artists were academically trained in the visual arts from institutions such as the Chicago Institute of Art and the Maryland Institute of Art (now MICA). Edward Darby operated his own advertising and commercial illustration business in Atlanta, Georgia, and Baltimore, Maryland, before joining the project. And in 1940, the commission published thirteen of Darby’s illustrations in Virginia: A Guide to the Old Dominion, a book that was compiled by workers of the WPA’s state-sponsored Virginia Writers’ Project. Elsie Mistie was an accomplished artist, receiving commissions for a variety of art projects throughout her life. Mistie’s collection of about 500 drawings and paintings of wildflowers is now in the collections of the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, and the remainder of her work is at the Rogers Historical Museum in Arkansas. Others, like Neville Harnsberger, did not continue a career in art. After working for the commission, she married and started a family in Atlanta. 

By 1937, the project began to wind down, as indicated in the history division’s letters. In July 1937, Allyn wrote to the FAP’s assistant director, Thomas C. Parker, asking to keep Dorothea Farrington on the project, noting that Darby had been transferred. He also commented, “I realize it is becoming necessary to reduce the number employed on many projects.” Although the drawings were never published by the commission as intended, likely due to diminishing funds, the collection presents an important record of Virginia architecture, both traditional and vernacular, and includes images of structures that are no longer standing today.  

Related resources and collections:

• WPA Photograph and Negative Collection 
• Department of Conservation and Development, Division of History, Records, 1927–1950, Acc. 24806a-c, 25913, and 41571: http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/published/lva/vivadoc.pl?file=vi00960.xml 

References:
Rex M. Allyn to Edward A. Darby, February 10, 1936, WPA Artists Project Folder, Department of Conservation and Development, Division of History, Records, 1927–1950, Acc. 24806a-c, 25913, and 41571, the Library of Virginia, Richmond.   

Rex M. Allyn to Thomas C. Parker, July 12, 1937, WPA Artists Project Folder, Department of Conservation and Development, Division of History, Records, 1927–1950, Acc. 24806a-c, 25913, and 41571, the Library of Virginia, Richmond.

These photographs give a detailed visual account of Suffolk-area service stations in the early automotive age, including station personnel, oil-delivery vehicles and drivers, off-site oil storage facilities, and other elements of oil-related infrastructure. Architecturally, the service stations range from pagoda-like roadside huts to urban brick produce market/gas station all-in-ones, most displaying the distinctive “Sinclair Gasoline” sign. Gas can be seen for sale at 25 cents a gallon. 

The original purpose of this series is unknown. While some of the images smack of promotional photography, especially those in which drivers pose with their vehicles, others seem more documentary or photojournalistic, particularly a handful of images showing the aftermath of a dramatic rollover car wreck. Most of the drivers and many of the station owners are named.

Provenance:
Electronic copies donated, 2009. 
Vintage prints retained by donor. 

Related resources and collections:
C1: 162 Hamblin Studio Photograph Collection 

A companion to our larger Harry C. Mann Photograph Collection, this digitized set of 58 panoramic images of Norfolk and Virginia Beach provide a sense of scale (often epic) for collective human activities in environments specific to those activities. Included are early-twentieth-century panoramic views of Virginia Beach First Baptist Church, the Chautauqua Building, O’Keefe’s Casino, Norfolk’s Miller & Rhoads department store on Plum Street, McKendree Methodist Church, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Norfolk Harbor, Willoughby Spit, Elizabeth City, and Glenwood Park.

Arrangement and access:
The original negatives are part of the collection at Norfolk Public Library.

References:
Norfolk Public Library Newsletter, vol. 2, no. 3 (Spring 2008)

Related resources and collections:
Harry C. Mann Photograph Collection, C1: 008

In Hampton Roads, Virginia, 1868, the Union general and educator Samuel Armstrong (1839–1893) opened Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute on the grounds of a former slave-holding plantation, with the stated purpose of “train[ing] selected Negro youth who should go out and teach and lead their people first by example… to replace stupid drudgery with skilled hands, and in this way to build up an industrial system for the sake not only of self-support and intelligent labor, but also for the sake of character.” The institute (today Hampton University) received its first Native American students, refugees from the Red River War, in 1878.  Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, the date of these cyanotype images, the institute saw a dramatic increase in enrollment and course offerings, emphasizing not classical studies but practical experience in trades and industry, such as carpentry, clock making, printing, tailoring, bricklaying, and, of course, farming, as well as rigorous classes in mathematics and the sciences. 

The cyanotypes suggest an artistic sensibility at work on the campus. All images appear to have been taken by the same photographer, probably a member of a student photography club, among which cyanotypes were popular because they were inexpensive and relatively easy to process. Imposing exterior shots of college buildings, most notably Memorial Church and Virginia-Cleveland Hall, contrast with more delicate images of dogwood blossoms, sailboats in the harbor, and schoolchildren seated at a long table set for a dainty meal and playing ring-around-the-rosy in a yard. Other photos capture a pair of young Native Americans (probably students), a couple seated in an ox cart, and a row of dilapidated cabins along a rough board fence with a woman’s dress hung from it to dry in the sun. 

Arrangement and access:
The 32 cyanotype prints are mounted on 23 quarto leaves bound in their original limp, linen-backed boards. Image sizes range from 3 ¾ x 4 ½ to 6 x 7 ½ inches. 

Provenance:
Purchased 2010 

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

Spanning nearly three decades, this collection includes candid images documenting the growth of an industrial city. In 1912, the DuPont Company selected the Hopewell area as the site of its explosive powder production operations. Completion of the factory coincided with the start of World War I. DuPont built a company town around the factory, providing housing for the workers. As with other industrial planned communities of the early twentieth century, DuPont also provided for the physical, intellectual, and social lives of its workers by building schools, churches, gymnasiums, libraries, clinics and hunt clubs. By the 1930s, several local and national industries recognized Hopewell’s pool of workers and established factories alongside DuPont.

In an effort to preserve individual employee rights in a town largely controlled by industry, Hopewell plant workers joined labor unions such as District 50 of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). The UMWA industrial union was formed in 1890 by the amalgamation of the National Progressive Union (organized 1888) and the mine locals under the Knights of Labor. The UMWA’s stated purpose was to address the lack of continuity of employment, limited access and ownership in company-owned towns, and the extreme occupational hazards that led to regular strikes and constant efforts to improve conditions through collective bargaining. At the time of the construction of Union Hall in 1952, five local chapters were represented within District 50: Local 12103, Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation (formerly Solvay Process Division), Local 12146, Continental Can Company, Inc.,Local 13358, Costal Industrial Contractors, Local 13053, Celanese Corporation of America, and Local 13061, Hercules Powder Company.

The prints and photographs in this collection show union officers and proceedings, strikers in action, contract-signing ceremonies, parades and marching bands, racially segregated recreational activities, Labor Day festivities, earth-breaking ceremonies, and construction and completion of Hopewell’s Union Hall. Negatives from Hercules Powder Company (ca. 1947–1957) make up the largest measure of this collection and include images of workplace accidents and safety efforts, staff photos, operations and machinery, social clubs, notable visitors, and special events.

Arrangement and access:
The negatives are filed chronologically. The finding aid is a chronological list that includes brief descriptions of images and indicates the number of negatives available.

Provenance:
Donated, 2009