Laura Fitzpatrick photograph collection
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Abstract
The Laura Fitzpatrick photograph collection includes digital surrogates of photographs taken by Laura Fitzpatrick of her family, friends and neighbors outdoors on the streets, rooftops, beaches, and parks of Brooklyn, spanning the years 1938-1948. The original album is held by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Biographical Note
Laura Fitzpatrick was born on October 25, 1927 in Mount Meigs, Alabama. Her family moved to New York when she was ten years old and she started taking photographs with an Agfa Billy camera soon after. Fitzpatrick used the rooftop of her apartment building at 635 Broadway in Williamsburg like a photo studio, taking photographs of friends, family, and neighbors. She married Ernest Evans in 1951 and they had four children, including the donor of this collection, Daniel Evans.
Fitzpatrick received her nursing degree from the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) School of Practical Nursing at 30 Third Avenue in Brooklyn and she worked at Brookdale Hospital for 33 years. She went back to school in the 1970s for her Registered Nursing (RN) degree.
In her personal time, Fitzpatrick frequented the Apollo Theater and the Fox Theatre for musical concerts and Broadway theaters. Fitzpatrick moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina in retirement. She died on March 22, 1987.
Arrangement
The files have been assigned call numbers according to chronological order.
Scope and Contents
The collection is made up of 409 scanned digital images of original photographs taken by Laura Fitzpatrick from the ages of 11 to 21 (1938-1948). Fitzpatrick's photographs document her family, friends, and neighbors, Black families who were part of the Great Migration from the American South who had recently arrived in Brooklyn. The photographs were taken in Prospect Park, Coney Island, Williamsburg, and Bedford-Stuyvesant as well as some other locations in New York and Washington, DC. The majority of the photographs are black-and-white, with a few hand-colored examples.
The original camera, an Afga Billy, and scrapbook containing the original photographs were donated to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, DC. They were a part of the museum's inaugural exhibition, "Everyday Beauty: Photographs and Films from the Permanent Collection."
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Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Open to users without restriction.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright retained by the owner. Please consult library staff for further details and assistance.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date (if known); Laura Fitzpatrick photograph collection, CBHM.0019, Box and Folder number; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Existence and Location of Originals
The original camera and scrapbook containing the original photographs are held by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, DC.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Daniel S. Evans, 2022.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
This is a digital-only collection and is available on our digital collections portal under the call number prefix FITZ.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The digital files were cataloged by Special Collections Cataloger, Deborah Tint, and the finding aid was written by Archivist, Alice Griffin.
