1910s Black Georgia Photographer African American Charity Hospital Photos PR for Sale

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1910s Black Georgia Photographer African American Charity Hospital Photos PR For Sale

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1910s Black Georgia Photographer African American Charity Hospital Photos PR:
$2000.00

Appears to document both the nursing staff (seated group) of Charity Hospital & the recent graduating class. It is likely the three young women holding diplomas instructor seated in front.

Alice Woodby (b. 1865 Bridgewater Pennsylvania) attended Hampton Normal & Cheyney Institute for Colored Youth (the oldest HBCU in the country) before graduating as a physician from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1892.

Alice met her husband, Cornelius McKane, teaching in Augusta in 1893, quickly moved to Savannah to join his practice and

found their McKane Nursing School. The couple were then contracted by the US government to establish a teaching hospital & drug store in Monrovia Liberia (McKane’s home) before returning to Savannah and renaming McKane Nursing, Charity Hospital in 1901.

Smaller mount w/ Johnston Studio Savannah sticker dates these images almost certainly to c1914-1917. Later images show a more professional blind stamp rather than this gold foil label.

John William (J.W.) Johnston immigrated from Jamaica in his teens around 1898 and shows in records as a working photographer in Detroit by 1910. In 1914 he moves to a warmer climate in Savannah Georgia where he marries a photographer’s assistant, Frances Alethia Segee, and together with her sister, Arita Hettie Segee, run the Savannah studio. Around 1917 when J.W. travels to set up a second studio in Columbia S.C., the women run the Savannah studio alone.

Johnston widely advertised himself as Savannah’s Colored Photographer and works for The Savannah Tribune, a black newspaper. It is possible these images were in fact for that purpose. The Schomburg Center Archives houses a similar example.

By 1923 the Johnstons have permanently moved to Oakland California & Charity Hospital is rebuilt from the ground up in 1926 out of fire safety concerns. Ironically, the new building suffers two fires and had a relatively short lifespan.

Images here are strong, particularly for outdoor lighting, and show only minor foxing.10 x 12” & 10.5 x 14” mounts suffer soiling, wear & obvious loss. Scanned for detail & photographed in their entirety.

Exceptional historic reference by a documented Black photographer.