Picturing Black History

A collaboration of Getty Images and Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective

African-American children cool off with water as they play and piggy back ride each other at Woodlawn Community, Chicago, Iillinois, Illinois, 1973. Image courtesy John White/US National Archives. (Photo via Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images). — African-American children cool off with water as they play and piggy back ride each other at Woodlawn Community, Chicago, Illinois, 1973. Image courtesy John White/US National Archives. (Photo via Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images).

BUILDING ON THE SUCCESS of Origins, 2021 saw the launch of Picturing Black History (PBH). This cross-disciplinary, historical photography project is a collaboration with Getty Images, which was developed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the protests that followed. The issues of racism and Black lives have never been more urgent to our national conversation than they are right now. Nor has it ever been more important to understand the history of Black America in all its complexity. The challenge is to bring this history to wider audiences so that, with deeper understanding, we can forge a more equitable and just future. Picturing Black History is our effort to meet that challenge. PBH produces essays—written for the public by professional historians, art historians, Black Studies scholars, and photographers—that engage Black history through Getty Images’ unmatched collection of photographs. The powerful conversation between text and images in each PBH essay allows our authors to explore the web of intersections among the structural, social, and subjective experiences of race and racism in American history. PBH embraces the power of images to capture stories of oppression and resistance, perseverance and resilience, freedom dreams, imagination, and joy within the United States and around the globe. (See the launch trailer below).

In creating and disseminating these new photographic essays, this project leverages the combined experience, platforms, and networks of Origins and Getty Images to contribute to an ongoing public dialogue on the significance of Black history and Black life and to bring new perspectives on the current racism crisis to a wide audience (picturingblackhistory.org/about-black-history). PBH has published more than 60 essays over the past two years, with many more coming each month. PBH will also publish two photo-essay books with Abrams Books in 2024 and 2025, and is producing museum exhibits, videos, and podcasts, and bringing PBH to high school and college classrooms through outreach programs to students, teacher resources, and digital teacher development modules for CEUs. The PBH staff includes, at Ohio State: Nicholas Breyfogle, Laura Seeger, Daniela Edmeier, Damarius Johnson, Paul McAllister, David Steigerwald, Ben St. Angelo, along with Steven Conn and Andrew Offenburger at Miami University, and at Getty Images, Bob Ahern, Leslie Stauffer, Sarah Kubiak, Shawn Waldron, and Melanie Llewellyn. ■

Written by Nick Breyfogle, Associate Professor of History, Director of the Goldberg Center

A drill instructor during an inspection of paratroopers at Fort Benning in Chattahoochee County, Georgia, 24th February 1944. Some of the paratroopers are named (but not identified) as Corporal Elijah H. Wesby, Sergeant Robert S. Walden, Sergeant Jack D. Tillis, and Sergeant Daniel Weil. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) — A drill instructor during an inspection of paratroopers at Fort Benning in Chattahoochee County, Georgia, 24th February 1944. Some of the paratroopers are named (but not identified) as Corporal Elijah H. Wesby, Sergeant Robert S. Walden, Sergeant Jack D. Tillis, and Sergeant Daniel Weil. Photo: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Portrait (by Frances Benjamin Johnston) of Booker T. Washington atop his horse, Dexter, in 1906. (Bettmann Collection/Getty Images) — Portrait (by Frances Benjamin Johnston) of Booker T. Washington atop his horse, Dexter, in 1906. Photo: Bettmann Collection/Getty Images

Sixteen Black children accompanied by four mothers carry anti-segregation signs in Hillsboro, Ohio, in 1956. (Bettmann Collection/Getty Images) — Sixteen Black children accompanied by four mothers carry anti-segregation signs in Hillsboro, Ohio, in 1956. Photo: Bettmann Collection/Getty Images