Calvert McCann photographs

The wonderful collection of Calvert McCann photographs has been digitized and are now available on ExploreUK.

Above: Dunbar High School student, Deloris McDowel, at a lunch counter sit-in at the Lexington F.W. Woolworth’s lunch counter

The Calvert McCann photographs (dated 1961-1964; 3.7 cubic feet; 7 boxes) consist of 20 black and white photographic prints depicting the Civil Rights Movement in Lexington and Frankfort, Kentucky. The photographs show sit-ins at lunch counters, demonstrations in downtown lexington, Louis Armstrong refusing to cross a picket line at the Phoenix Hotel, and the March on Frankfort led by Martin Luther King, Jr, Ralphy Abernathy, Wyatt Tee Walker, and Jackie Robinson.

Above: March on Frankfort led by (from left) Martin Luther King, Jr.; Ralph Abernathy; Wyatt Tee Walker; and Jackie Robinson
 
Calvert McCann (1942-2014) was a teenager when he began participating in marches and demonstrations as part of the civil rights movement in Lexington in the 1960s. While a part time employee at Michael’s Photography Store in downtown Lexington, McCann began to document these experiences on a Pentax 35mm camera that he carried everywhere. He photographed demonstrations in downtown Lexington, sit-ins at lunch counters, protests at the Phoenix Hotel, and the March on Frankfort led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Much of the footage he took remained undeveloped until the early 2000s when McCann gave the film to Gerald Smith. Smith used the images in his book Black America Series: Lexington, Kentucky.

Above: Henry Jones and his younger brother leading a demonstration on Lexington’s Main Street, circa 1960s

Thanksgiving in Downtown Lexington, 1968

The Alexandra Soteriou photographs include several images labeled “Thanksgiving downtown Lexington”. Capturing simple scenes, these images provide a unique look at everyday life in 1968 Lexington. Enjoy and be thankful.

Alexandra Soteriou Photographs Collection Now on ExploreUK

Below is a small sampling of the wonderful images from the Alexandra Soteriou photographs, 1968 (2013av029). The collection comprises a scrapbook and photo negatives that document everyday life in Lexington, Kentucky, from April to June 1968, following the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy. Some photographs also appear to be taken in Cincinnati, Ohio. The scrapbook additionally contains quotes and poems accompanying the photographs. Many of the negatives and scrapbook pages detail African-American life on Kenton Street in Lexington. Some negatives show crowds in front of Buell Armory on the University of Kentucky's campus. All pictures and negatives in the collection are attributed to Alexandra Soteriou.

Alexandra Soteriou was editor of the Kentuckian, the University of Kentucky yearbook, for 1969-1970. This yearbook was published without approval from the Director of Student Publications. Soteriou graduated from UK in 1971 with a Bachelors of Arts in Arts and Sciences.