Doris Ulmann Photograph Collection

The Doris Ulmann Photograph Collection spans the period from ca. 1910-1934 and contains 3,016 photographs and a few miscellaneous items.

Each photograph in the Doris Ulmann collection was assigned a consecutive number that corresponds to the order in which the photographs were found upon their arrival at the Society. The number is written in pencil on the front of the mat, backing, or print. Although some of the subjects are grouped together numerically, there are not enough to suggest anything other than a random arrangement previous to their arrival. The photographs were kept in number order during processing, and a database created to fully describe each photograph. The descriptive information in the database has been migrated into the container list of this finding aid.

Subject matter

This collection contains Ullman's portraits of rural residents of Appalachia and the Southeastern United States, including Native Americans, African Americans, craftsmen, musicians, and members of religious communities. Also included are portraits of prominent American authors, artists, actors, editors, and physicians of her time.

Ulmann did not identify any of her portrait subjects on the works themselves, and this collection contains none of her original records or notes to aid in identification. Approximately one-third of the sitters were identified when the collection was processed in 2002-03. Identified sitters include Sherwood Anderson, Calvin Coolidge, Esther Forbes, Martha Graham, Sinclair Lewis, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. There are often multiple images of the same subject, as indicated in the container list.

Of particular interest are the images published in Roll, Jordan, Roll, most of which are held in the collection. The book grew out of a visit Ulman made to the South Carolina plantation of her friend, novelist Julie Peterkin, who employed a large community of Gullah workers to cultivate her fields (the Gullahs were descendents of West African slaves who settled mainly on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia and developed a distinctive creole language and culture). The two women collaborated to document, through Peterkin's words and Ulmann's images, the vanishing Gullah culture. Widely regarded as Ulmann's finest work, the fine art edition of Roll Jordan Roll, issued in 1933, has been described as one of the most beautiful books ever produced. Ulman's images provide an exquisite visual record of former African-American slaves and their descendents as they appeared almost seventy years after the Emancipation Proclamation on this particular South Carolina plantation. However, seen in the context of what is today more generally known about the conditions of slavery, some of the images may appear highly romanticized.

Format

The great majority of the photographs are platinum prints, though there are also some oil pigment prints. It is presumed that Ulmann herself printed the original photographs in the collection, most of which are in their original mats, and many of which are signed and dated. The mats are in the standard format of the Clarence White School, where Ulmann had studied, and were made under her direction if not actually by her.

Some of the images in the collection are photogravure prints that are either printer's proofs or have been cut from the four previously mentioned published limited edition books. These can be identified in the database by searching the word "gravure" in the 'Notes' field.

Of the 3,016 images in the collection, 922 are signed by Ulmann. Of those, 646 are signed "Doris Ulmann," 272 are signed "Doris U. Jaeger," and four are signed "Doris Jaeger." Five of the images signed Doris Ulmann (numbers 122, 207, 208, 210, 212) had been signed "Doris U. Jaeger," which she erased and reinscribed "Doris Ulmann." Charles H. Jaeger was Ulmann's husband, fellow-photo-enthusiast, and a physician who was a Columbia University faculty member. The couple appears to have separated by November 1920; one year later Ulmann was exhibiting photographs under her maiden name. The Ulmann database identifies specific image numbers with signatures and various monograms, another way Ulmann signed her prints.

Ulmann dated 237 of the photographs that she signed between 1916 and 1919. All but two have the "Doris U. Jaeger" signature, with the date appearing as a full year or abbreviated: 1919 or '19, for example. Exceptions are images 212 and 2803, which have variant signatures. Again, dated images can be identified through the database.

The platinum prints in the collection are two sizes, each of which she presented differently. The smaller of the two are trimmed to 4.625 by 6.5 inches. The prints are glued to a tissue backing, the backing is glued to a light gray paperboard mount, and the mount and mat hinged together with cloth tape. The print floats inside a window that is cut to 5.625 by 7.5 inches. When signed, her signature appears in pencil on the tissue below the print on the right side.

The larger size prints are trimmed to 6 by 8 inches. The mat and mount are of the same off-white paperboard. The prints are glued to the mount and float inside a window that is cut to 6.5 x 8.5 inches. Signatures on these prints appear directly on the mount, in pencil below the photograph on the right side.

The oil pigment photographic images are 6 by 8 inches and the paper is not trimmed. They are mounted and matted, and, if signed, are inscribed like the platinum prints of this size.

The overall dimension of the matted photographs is 11.25 by 14.25 inches.

Photocopies

To assist in research, photocopies were made of the photographs, and have been grouped into seven general subject categories for easy patron browsing and visual reference. The seven major subject categories are: Men; Women; Children; Groups (two or more); Landscapes; Still Lifes; and Other. The photocopies are arranged under these seven categories.

MEN, as subjects, are by far the largest category in the entire Ulmann collection. They include adult men ranging in age from their twenties to very old. When the "subset" descriptions are applied to this general category, the following "types" appear.

MEN, Urban, are formal studio portraits of sophisticated, upper and middle class men and professionals, including authors, editors, actors, artists, and musicians, with most images made from the waist-up. Most are pictured in the businessman's or gentlemen's "uniform" of the time: a jacket, vest, and tie. Some wear an artistic smock or laboratory coat. The clothing styles range from very formal-looking early twentieth-century suits to more modern, relaxed outfits common in the late 1920s. Younger men in this later time period are shown in rolled-up shirtsleeves and open collars. The subjects sometimes hold pens or books, musical instruments, or stand next to laboratory furniture or painting easels, giving a clue as to their profession. Lighted cigarettes seem to have been a favorite prop. Urban, African American MEN are very few in number, the writer James Weldon Johnson, being one. There are also several unidentified and important-looking African men in what appear to be traditional robes.

MEN, Country (primarily Caucasian), and MEN, Country, African American, are photographed in rural outdoor settings. Good examples are photographs numbered 2684 through 2711, and 2769 through 2800. Farmers, blacksmiths, dockworkers, fishermen, carpenters, among others, are shown with the tools of their trades. The men look as if they just came in from the field, their clothes and faces covered in dust. Or, they can be wearing clean, pressed jackets, shits, and ties, as of ready for church or company. Whether clean or dusty, the clothes and hats are tattered and well-worn, the jackets and shirts have numerous patches. Several images are of African American MEN in "chain gangs," working in groups along a roadside wearing striped prison uniforms and leg chains; Caucasian guards with rifles stand at the side. Regardless of what the men wear or what they are doing, as captured through Ulmann's lens, these "types" have great dignity and character.

WOMEN is the second largest category, although it is less than twenty percent of the size of the MEN category. They include adult women ranging in age from their twenties to very old. When the "subset" descriptions are applied, the following "types" emerge.

WOMEN, Urban (primarily Caucasian) and WOMEN, Urban, African American are formal studio portraits of sophisticated upper and middle class women and professionals, including editors, authors, artists, actresses, and musicians. They display a wide range of costume, jewelry, and hairstyles from early twentieth-century formal gowns to the flapper-style and more modern, comfortable-looking dresses of the late 1920's. These later styles include man-tailored suits as well as artistic, embroidered gowns and robes; this latter group includes several portraits of Bertha Goudy, type designer and co-proprietor of the Village Press.

WOMEN, Country, and WOMEN, Country, African American correspond to descriptions, above, of Country MEN. The women wear housedresses and aprons or remove their aprons when dressed for company or church, adding a hat. There is an especially notable set of images of young women and girls, grouped in numbers 818 through 1013 (among others.) African American WOMEN are also shown working outside of the home, for instance, at tables bundling asparagus, or in the asparagus or cotton fields.

Types for CHILDREN are as follows.

CHILDREN, Urban, are Caucasian. Some of these children are identified, including Evelyn Necarsulmer (born 1908, the only child of Ulmann's only sibling), and Ethel Durant, the daughter of historian Will Durant.

CHILDREN, Country or CHILDREN, African American are some of Ulmann's more notably beautiful and sensitive images. She photographed groups simply posed for the camera, or seen at a swimming hole or at a wagon with books. Some were captured with their grandparents or riding in a car. Good examples of this genre appear in images 1600 through 1640, among others

GROUPS (two or more) includes portraits that are of two or more people, and were thus impossible to include in the other categories because most of the groups are combinations of MEN, WOMEN, or CHILDREN. Many are children, as noted above. There are two other prominent subsets of GROUPS. One is Country couples, presumably husbands and wives, (images numbered 2475 through 2725, among others), and are mostly elderly people with expressive faces reflecting lives of poverty and years of hard work. The second group are photographs of Martha Graham and her troupe, the Martha Graham Dancers, captured at work in stage costumes and posed as if in the middle of a dance piece.

LANDSCAPES: a subject was considered a landscape if the overall emphasis was an outside environment, usually with a horizon line. Some landscapes include people, such as a farmer pushing a plow behind a horse, for example, but the landscape is the primary subject, rather than the person.

STILL LIFES: a subject was considered a still life when it focused on inanimate objects or parts of the human figure (hands, for instance). In some instances, small courtyards or doorways were also classified as still lifes because the content, composition, and light suggested something more intimate than a landscape

OTHER: a few miscellaneous items in the collection include what appear to be copied photographs of Ulmann family photographs, such as a small image of a Civil War era soldier. In addition, there are a number of empty mats that were signed by the editors who are photographed in the 1925 American Editors book. The fate of the missing photographs is unknown. However, it is possible these images were sent to an engraver when the book was printed