W.E.B. Du Bois Curated Photo Exhibit

The Library of Congress recently acquired the images W.E.B. Du Bois used in his show at the 1900 Paris Exposition.

At the 1900 Paris Exposition, W.E.B. Du Bois, a Pan-Africanist civil rights activist and the author The Souls of Black Folk, curated an exhibit of photographs of African Americans to illustrate to the world the lives and beauty of Black Americans after the ending of slavery. The Paris Exposition was a world's fair in Paris, France, that celebrated the accomplishments of the past century while looking to improve the future. The Library of Congress recently acquired the 363 images used in the exhibit. Du Bois organized these photos into albums entitled Types of American Negroes, Georgia, U.S.A. and Negro Life in Georgia, U.S.A.. 

Some of the images from the collection are below.

Practice school teachers at Howard University, Washington, D.C.

African American man and woman, half-length portrait, standing in barnyard.

Corner in the home of African American teachers, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Howard Univ., Washington, D.C., ca. 1900 - class in bacteriology laboratory.

Officers of Tobacco Trade Union, Petersburg, Va.

Sisters of the Holy Family, New Orleans, La.

Two African American men standing next to a tree in Georgia.

African Americans arriving at church.

African Americans arriving at church.

African American man, head-and-shoulders portrait, left profile.

African American woman, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left.

Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., 1900 - morning prayers