Collections : [University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.]

The University of Virginia Collection on the History of Childhood, Parenting, and Family Building is an artificial collection and periodic additions are expected.

This collection contains four programs and eight photographs documenting mid-twentieth-century African American life in Roanoke and Wytheville, Virginia. Two programs for Debutante Balls hosted by "The Altruists," a club for Black women in Roanoke, are dated 1954 and 1977. The Altruist Club program for 1954 has "Stella Ednise Miller" in blue ink on the cover. A 1958 pamphlet for a Virginia Congress Colored P.T.A. annual work conference held at Scott Memorial School in Wytheville discusses "The P.T.A. Role in Fields of Education and Community." A program for the Lucy Addison High School Choir's annual Christmas concert is dated 1964. Eight undated printed photographs range in subject matter. Six photographs that are in color feature children sightseeing, a man seated with two children, a museum visit, a woman standing alongside two children, a boy smiling, and a woman smiling. Two photos in black and white feature four Black men in suits exchanging greetings, and a group of young Black children posed in rows with their names written in ink on the photograph.

This collection contains twenty black and white photographs, approximately 9 x 7 inches, depicting African American life, presumably in a segregated area in rural Virginia. The pictures have no annotations on the back, and the photographer is unknown. The location is also unclear; however, it may be somewhere near or in Fauquier County, Virginia. This location possibility is based on a photograph that depicts several storefronts, including a beauty salon which has two names painted on the window, Green & [ ] Beauty Salon. Juline Turner and Helen Blackwell, are presumably the proprietors of the salon.

This collection contains ninety-eight photographs of African American children and families at home and play from about the 1950s to the 1990s. Measurements range from 6" X 4" to 2" X 2" inches and are in color and black and white. Several subjects recur throughout the archive. All are unidentified; only three have any annotations on the back. The photographed figures, primarily children but some family shots included, are captured within their homes or playing outside. Activities include playing, swimming, posing, and celebrating holidays and special occasions.

This collection contains the autograph album of Dolores Ann Smith, an African American student from Roanoke, Virginia. The album's cover is embossed with "My School-Day Autobiography" in gilt letters. Two black and white photographs of young African American children are at the front of the album, one pasted and the other tipped in. The names of Dolores's teachers up to the eighth grade are identified on the "My Teachers" listing and a list of classmates. Seven autographs with associated greetings dedicated to Dolores appear throughout the album from classmates and family. These autographs range in date from December 1944 to November 1948. One page near the end of the album is written as a diary entry by Dolores from 1945. The end page, contains the address and the date August 14, 1948.