American Historical Ephemera and Photography, Featuring African Americana

4 x 5 1/2 in. albumen photographs on cardstock mounts, each with imprint on mount recto and verso of William Notman (1826-1891).

Provenance: Cowan's Auctions, The Road West: The Steve Turner Collection of African Americana, Part I, Lot 88. 

An impressive trio of cabinet photographs of African American staff members of Yale University from a series of photographs taken in New Haven, CT, by William Notman's company for the 1872 yearbook.

Included in the group is a beautifully composed shot of six African American men who served as the custodial staff at the university. This group, known as the "College Sweeps," included Carter Wright, the son of an A.M.E. minister, and George T. Livingston, who served in the 29th Connecticut Infantry during the war and who was active in Republican politics. Three men in suits stand at the back, two sit in chairs tilted towards the center, with the sixth man seated on the floor wears a knit cardigan sweater. -- A vignette portrait of an unidentified staff member sporting a goatee and wearing a suit. -- A full-length portrait of a fruit merchant wearing knee-length boots next to his vendor’s basket. 

William Notman was a Scottish-Canadian photographer with an international reputation. He was based in Montreal but had several studio locations and maintained seasonal branches at both Harvard and Yale to capitalize off of the student populations. While Notman was a prolific photographer, examples with people of color are exceedingly scarce. The apparently unique images do not appear in the McCord Collection. 

Together, 3 cabinet photographs in fine condition, with some light toning and minor fading to margins.