Cornelius Marion Battey Photographic Portraits Discovered Our October 8, 2009 African-American Fine Art auction marks the first time that early photographer Cornelius Marion Battey’s photographic portraits will come to auction. These photographs were recently discovered in the bottom of a cedar chest in Battey’s family’s attic in Tuskegee, Alabama, near Tuskegee University. A teacher, artist, historian, and mentor to a generation of African-American photographers, his photographs provide a unique narrative of early-twentieth-century African-American life. Early Life Cornelius M. Battey, The Sharecropper, silver print, circa 1920. Sold for $2,640. Born in 1873 in Augusta, Georgia, Battey spent his early career in the Midwest and New York, where he photographed writers, statesmen and other prominent figures in African-American society. Not simply a portrait photographer, Battey was an artist who embraced the pictorialist movement led by renowned photographer Alfred Stieglitz. By working in a highly stylized manner, Battey softened the details around his sitters’ features as if with a paintbrush, casting a glow around them. Photographing Prominent Figures & Battey’s Time at the Tuskegee Institute Cornelius M. Battey, Frederick Douglass, silver print, circa 1895. Sold for $1,560. Battey photographed such prominent figures as W.E.B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Presidents Calvin Coolidge and William Howard Taft. His portrait of Du Bois is now considered the iconic image of the early civil rights activist. In 1916, Battey became the head of the Tuskegee Institute’s new photography department, the Alabama college started by Douglass to promote education and vocational training for African Americans. Battey was also Tuskegee’s official photographer, and he documented campus life. He remained at Tuskegee until his death in 1927. Battey kept close ties to colleagues in New York, entering photographic competitions and illustrating the cover of prominent African-American publications The Crisis and Opportunity. Cornelius M. Battey, Booker T. Washington, silver print, circa 1908. Sold for $4,800. Exhibitions Cornelius M Battey, W.E.B Du Bois, silver print, 1918. Sold for $9,000. In 1989, the Williams College Art Museum exhibited Black Photographers Bear Witness: 100 Years of Social Protest, which featured Battey’s photographs alongside works by Gordon Parks and James VanDerZee. His photographs have since been featured in photography exhibitions at the International Center of Photography, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the University of Minnesota Art Museum, the Oakland Museum of California and Hampton University. Related Reading: Collecting Works by African-American Photographers and Collecting Photographs by African-American Women Do you have a photograph by Cornelius M. Battey we should take a look at? Learn about how to consign to an auction, and send us a note about your item. Share Facebook Twitter September 16, 2009Author: Swann CommunicationsCategory: African American Art Tags: African-American Fine Art African-American Photography Cornelius M. Battey Photographs & Photobooks Previous Collection of Rare and Important Bibles to be Offered at Swann in 2009 Next Richard L. Brown Painting to be Offered in October 2009 Recommended Posts Virginia Zabriskie Collection Opens the Fall 2021 Season at Swann Photographs & Photobooks September 23, 2021 This Season’s Successes: Winter-Spring 2024 Auctions in Review 19th & 20th Century Literature July 15, 2024 Artist Profile: Faith Ringgold African American Art September 14, 2020