Enterprising Images: The Goodridge Brothers, African American Photographers, 1847-1922

by John Vincent Jezierski

Overview

The story of the most prolific African American photographers in North America.

From its beginnings in York, Pennsylvania, in 1847, until the death of Wallace L. Goodridge in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1922, the Goodridge Brothers Studio was the most significant and enduring African American photographic establishment in North America. In Enterprising Images, John Vincent Jezierski tells the story of one of America's first families of photography, documenting the history of the Goodridge studio for three-quarters of a century. The existence of more than one thousand Goodridge photographs in all formats and the family's professional and personal activism enrich the portrait that emerges of this extraordinary family. Weaving photographic and regional history with the narrative of a family whose lives paralleled the social and political happenings of the country, Jezierski provides the reader with a complex family biography for those interested in regional and African American, as well as photographic, history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814324516
Publisher:	Wayne State University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2000
Series:	Great Lakes Books Series
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	659,790
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John Vincent Jezierski is a professor of history at Saginaw Valley State University.

Editorial Reviews

The Goodridge family and their photographs are of national historical significance, and there are many lessons to be learned from them. Their sweeping multi-generational history reads like the Great American Novel, transcending the entire nineteenth century and several states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York and Minnesota. There are many topical themes also, from early photography, slavery, free blacks in the North, commercial entrepreneurship, lumbering, and black/white relations-to name only a few.

Pennsylvania State Archives - Linda A. Ries

Hidden Witness consists of reproductions of 69 photographs--almost all from attorney Wilson's private collection as well as a few from the Getty Museum's holdings--that depict African Americans in the 1840s, 1850s, and early 1860s. Most of the photos are formal studio portraits, but others are outdoor scenes. The commentary by Wilson accompanying each photo is more personal reaction and interpretation than conventional scholarship. Something of the difficult lives and restrictive environment in which the pre-Emancipation slaves and freedmen existed are revealed through often subtle clues in posing, clothing, sitter's interactions, arrangement of nearby objects, etc. Considering the paucity of visual documentation from the era of American slavery, this collection of photos is an invaluable resource. In contrast, Jezierski (history, Saginaw Valley State Univ.) offers us a thorough, scholarly study of a heretofore little explored aspect of African American cultural history, detailing the lives and careers of a family of black professional photographers who operated studios in Pennsylvania and Michigan. The nearly eight decades in which Glenalvin, Wallace, and William Goodridge practiced literally spans the early history of photography in America. The Goodridge Brothers not only managed to establish themselves and then flourish as professional photographers, they also gained international renown for their expertise in large-format photography. Both books will engage two groups of readers, those interested in African American history and students of the development of photography in America. Recommended for all libraries serving either of those two constituencies.--Eugene C. Burt, Seattle Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

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