Byrd-Leach Family Photographs Collection
Scope and Contents
The collection contains thirty-six photographs from the Byrd and Leach families from Michigan and Ohio dating from 1880 to 1929.
Those pictured are sons-in-law, children and friends including Pauline Johnson; Essa Byrd’s family including Mary Katherine’s husband, Charles H. Smith, and her sons Robert Adrian Smith, Harold D. Smith and Frederick D. Smith.
Dates
- Creation: 1880-1929
Biographical / Historical
The photographs vary between formal portraits, school classes and groups in various places including Lake Erie and Wilberforce University in Ohio. Close to everyone in these images are identified.
Extent
.25 Cubic Feet
Language of Materials
English
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The images were donated by Helen and Charles Mickens from Lansing, Michigan who were given them by a person who found them in a vacant house in Lansing. Clyde and Essa Leach Byrd lived in Lansing so it is possible the images originally were owned by them.
Physical Description
The collection amounts to .25 cubic feet and consists of thirty-six photographs of relatives and friends of the Byrd and Leach families who lived in Michigan and Ohio. All of the people in these images are African American. There are postcards, cabinet cards, mounted photographs, snapshots in black and white and sepia and are in a wide variety of sizes. The largest measures 4” x 6” and the smallest 2.25” x 3.25”. Some images have spotting, scratching, water damage and fading. Overall the people pictured are clearly visible.
Subject
- Byrd, Clyde Everett, 1891-1980 (Depicted, Person)
- Byrd, Essie Gladys (Depicted, Person)
- Smith, Mary Kathrine, 1894-1975 (Depicted, Person)
- Smith, Charles Harold, 1896-1975 (Depicted, Person)
Genre / Form
- Title
- Byrd-Leach Family Photographs Collection finding aid
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Stephanie Chapman
- Date
- 2023-04-25
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Western Michigan University Archives & Regional History Collections Repository
Charles C. and Lynn L. Zhang Legacy Collections Center
1650 Oakland Drive
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5307 US
(269) 387-8490
arch-collect@wmich.edu