Preserving the Charles "Teenie" Harris African American Image Collection, Phase II

FAIN: PC-50099-07

Carnegie Institute (Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4007)
Louise W. Lippincott (Project Director: July 2006 to March 2010)

The cataloging, conservation, creation of finding aids, and mounting on the Internet of 26,963 images that document African American history and culture in Pittsburgh from 1935 to 1975.

In 2001, Carnegie Museum of Art (CMA) purchased the collection of negatives of African American photojournalist Charles "Teenie" Harris. In a 40-year career, Harris produced over 80,000 images that documented daily life in the Black communities of Pittsburgh from 1935 to 1975. Recognizing the potential of the Harris archive to significantly expand understanding about the urban African American experience, CMA made a commitment to preserve, research, and make accessible the images and the stories they tell. In 2005, the museum received an NEH grant of $340,000 for Phase I of the Teenie Harris Archive Project. With Phase I set to achieve its objectives by April 2007-and with mounting interest in and use of the Harris images-CMA is requesting a new grant to support Phase II of the Teenie Harris Archive Project to conserve, catalog, scan, and archivally store additional negatives and to scan these negatives for distribution on CMA's web site.