Printed sheet music of the spiritual "O Let My People Go," as recorded by Rev. L. C. Lockwood from his interactions with formerly enslaved people at Fortress Monroe in Virginia and arranged by Thomas Baker.
Certificate that Lewis White is a soldier in the Company G, 109 U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment. As such, White, his wife, and their children are free citizens. Signed by James Brisbin.
Photograph of Elmer Hammonds, Sr., posing outside with his dog. Elmer Johnson Hammonds, Sr. (1903-1987) grew up in Bardstown, Kentucky, and moved to Louisville in the early 1930s. In 1931, he married Ophelia Doyle Guinn (1899-1964). The couple raised three children on West Chestnut Street. Elmer worked as a Pullman Porter for over 39 years, from 1929 to 1968. During the heyday of railroad travel, the Pullman Porters attended to the needs of train passengers. In the beginning, the Pullman Company hired only Black men for the job of porter.
Reproduction of a negative by Ivey Watksins Cousins (1898-1973). It captures the joy of young Black boys playing with a pet dog in a northwestern view of East Broadway and South Jackson Street in Louisville, Kentucky. A native of Danville, Virginia, Ivey Watkins Cousins moved to Louisville in 1944. He held numerous jobs over the years, working as a tobacco dealer, photographer, machine-shop instructor, manager of the USO Shop, and Curator of the Louisville Library Museum. In 1959, he began photographing houses and structures being demolished to make way for I-65. After viewing the images, the Filson Club Board of Directors gave Cousins $25 to buy film for his project. This is one of the few images in which Cousins photographs people.
