Virtual Archives and Exhibitions of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History

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These photos, found in the Walter Lawrence Smith collection, show a wedding that looks to have taken place in 1950. A note penciled on the back of one of the images in this collection tells us Mrs. Essleman and Mrs. Bates were interested in purchasing wedding photos. We might [...]

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As we can see from these photos found in the Walter Lawrence Smith collection, wedding photography has changed little in the last sixty years.  Typical photos include pictures of the bride and groom and their families – which provide a record of who the family was at the time [...]

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These wedding photos from the Walter Lawrence Smith collection looks a lot like modern wedding photos. In fact, the wedding industry as we know it today took shape in the 1920s-1950s, as modern technology put more spare change in people’s pockets. Following World War II, an economic surge through [...]