James Conway Farley photograph of William Custalo, 1895/1907

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
170 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Special Collections Public Services & Reference Staff
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

This collection is open for research.

Preferred citation:

MSS 16964, James Conway Farley photograph of William Custalo, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Summary

Extent:
0.03 Cubic Feet One letter-size file folder
Creator:
Max Rambod and Farley, James Conway, 1854-1912
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

MSS 16964, James Conway Farley photograph of William Custalo, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains an albumen photograph cabinet card of William Custalo (1840-1907), a successful Richmond-area businessman and proprietor of the Custalo House bar and restaurant. Custalo is captured in a suit with a watch chain, seated with his hand resting on a wicker chair. The portrait features the imprint of the Jefferson Fine Art Gallery, Richmond, Virginia.

The photograph was taken by James Conway Farley (1854-1912), one of the earliest successful Black photographers in the United States. Born to enslaved parents in Prince Edward County, Virginia in 1854, Farley moved to Richmond and entered the photography trade, eventually opening his own studio, the Jefferson Fine Art Gallery, in 1895. Beforehand, Farley spent twenty years working for the G.W. Davis Photography Gallery. The Jefferson Fine Art Gallery studio served a racially mixed clientele base. Farley's Richmond studio had closed by 1907, dating the photograph of William Custalo from circa 1895 to 1907. Farley is last recorded as a photographer in Jersey City, New Jersey on the 1910 census.

Acquisition information:
This collection was a purchase from Max Rambod to the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library on 4 March 2026.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard