Black and White:
Contemporary Photographic Interpretations
of Paul Laurence Dunbar's Poetry
During the fall of 2006, the University of Dayton Roesch Library
presented the exhibit Black and White: Contemporary Photographic
Interpretations of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Poetry. The exhibition
focused on books published during Dunbar’s lifetime that were illustrated
with photographs portraying the African-American characters described in
the poems. These photos were taken by students and faculty of the Hampton
Institute, a Virginia school founded shortly after Emancipation to help
prepare former slaves to find employment.
The six illustrated books were on display (many of them first editions
published between 1899 and 1906) and reproductions of their decorative
covers were mounted on the gallery walls. Also in the gallery were
enlargements of selected poems, and the photographs that accompany them.
A reception and lecture took place on Friday September 29 at 4:00pm,
featuring Dr. Ray Sapirstein of the State University of New York at Albany.
Dr. Sapirstein is an authority on Dunbar’s collaboration with the Hampton
Institute in the production of these illustrated books.
