News > Allen E. Cole Book Released
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For Immediate Release Contact: Jane Mason
February 26, 2013 O: 216-721-5722 x1501
C: 216-296-2988
jmason@wrhs.org

Announcing! Photography Book Documenting the Lives of African Americans in Cleveland, OH
Through the Lens of Allen E. Cole
A Photographic History of African Americans in Cleveland, Ohio
Authors: Samuel W. Black & Regennia N. Williams

CLEVELAND, OH – A remarkable visual record spanning five decades of Cleveland’s African American community is now available in Through the Lens of Allen E. Cole from the Western Reserve Historical Society. In this powerful book, the photographs are accompanied by text from authors Samuel Black and Regennia N. Williams. The text grounds the images in the context of African American history and the Great Migration. The photographs illustrate the diverse experiences among Cleveland’s vibrant African American community. Social organizations, women’s and men’s clubs, civic and church groups, schoolchildren and teachers, businessmen, and politicians are all included in this new visual documentation of US history.

ABOUT ALLEN E. COLE:
During the Great Depression, photographer Allen Eugene Cole posted a sign in front of his studio in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood: “somebody, somewhere, wants your photograph.” As an entrepreneurial businessman with a keen ability to market his images of Cleveland’s black experience, Cole was deeply immersed in civic life. A founder and treasurer of the Progressive Business League, Cole was an officer of the Dunbar Life Insurance Co., a member of St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church, and active in the Elks and Masons. For years he was the only black member of the Cleveland Society of Professional Photographers. Well into the 1960s his photographs appeared regularly in the Call & Post, Cleveland’s African American weekly newspaper.


ABOUT THE ALLEN COLE COLLECTION IN THE RESEARCH LIBRARY AT THE WESTERN RESERVE HISTORICAL SOCIETY:
Images included in this volume were chosen from the thousands of photographs representing elements of the African American experience in the Allen Cole Collection at the Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS). The Allen Cole Collection is one of many collections available for research in the Research Library at the WRHS. The total collections include more than four million photographs. For more information about WRHS' African American Archives, call 216.721.5722 x 1527.


INFORMATION ON THE AUTHORS:
Samuel W. Black is Curator of African American Collections at the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh and a former curator of the Allen E. Cole Collection at the Western Reserve Historical Society. A winner of several awards, Black is the editor of the anthology Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era and serves as president of the Association of African American Museums.
Regennia N. Williams is associate professor of history at Cleveland State University and founder and director of the Initiative for the Study of Religion and Spirituality in the History of Africa and the Diaspora (RASHAD). She is the founding editor of The Journal of Traditions and Beliefs, and she received a Fulbright Fellowship for research and teaching in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, in 2010.

The book may be purchased through the online store of the Western Reserve Historical Society.

To visit the History Center, including the Research Library, admission is free for members. General Admission for other visitors is: Adults, $10; Children 3-12, $5; 2 and under, free. Parking is available in the lot off Magnolia Drive. Parking may be purchased with admission. Memberships can be purchased in the Museum Store or online at: http://www.wrhs.org/support/Membership

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Founded in 1867, Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS) is Northeast Ohio’s premier storyteller. It presents the lives and activities of the 19th-century settlers through historic Hale Farm and Village in Bath, Ohio, and relates the Gilded Age of glitter and industry through the history of Cleveland’s millionaires and entrepreneurs. WRHS offers a wealth of resources to research your family heritage at the History Center in University Circle, Cleveland. It is one of the oldest and largest nonprofit regional historical societies in the nation. WRHS inspires people to discover the American experience by exploring the tangible history of Northeast Ohio. For more information on the Western Reserve Historical Society, 10825 East Blvd., Cleveland, OH 44106 visit: http://www.wrhs.org/ or contact Jane Mason, Director of Communications and Marketing jmason@wrhs.org, 216-721-5722, x 1501.

WRHS receives public support with local tax dollars from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. Sponsorships, bequests, grants, admissions, and other funding are used to preserve and enrich the region’s artistic and cultural heritage. If you are interested in a funding opportunity for the Western Reserve Historical Society, please contact Amy Shorey, Director of Development, ashorey@WRHS.org