From September 2022 to June 2023, the “Visions of Progress: Portraits of Dignity, Style, and Racial Uplift” exhibition at the University of Virginia brought 180 portraits of Black Charlottesville-area residents from the turn of the 20th Century that had previously been buried in an archive, to the public.
The exhibition was temporary, but a new print catalog — which includes a selection of the portraits, biographies of some of the subjects, and contextualizing essays — makes it last.
The “Visions of Progress” catalog will be released on Saturday, Oct. 25 at 3 p.m. at the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library Central Branch. Anyone who wants one can get one, said exhibition curator and UVA history professor John Edwin Mason. The catalogs will be given away for free, and will be available in public libraries throughout the area.
“My hope is that 65 years from now, when some 8th grader is assigned to do a project on the history of Charlottesville, she finds the catalog, and her eyes are opened,” Mason said. She stands to learn that yes, the portraits were taken during the Jim Crow era, but that was also the New Negro era — a time when Black people were working hard to uplift the race economically, educationally, and in terms of the rights of citizenship.
“We know it can literally change the way that people see the history of this region,” he added.
Read more on how in this 2022 report on the portrait exhibition.
Though Mason is thrilled to get the catalog out to a wider audience, its release is bittersweet, he said. He regrets that local civil rights activist and community leader Eugene Wiliams, who passed away last weekend at age 97, won’t be there to celebrate it.
Williams told Mason something that changed the curator’s understanding of how the Holsinger studio — which was white-owned and served Black and white clients — operated.
Horace Porter, whose portrait is among the 180 included in the exhibition, started out as a janitor at the studio. He later ran the darkroom, doing all of the developing and printing for the studio.
Porter married Viola Green — the young woman who stood for a graduation photo — and together they had eight children.
How did Williams know? He and Porter had been colleagues at the studio.
Take action
Learn more about the history of Charlottesville on Saturday, Oct. 25
The Holsinger Studio Portrait Project releases the “Visions of Progress” exhibition catalog Saturday, Oct. 25 from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library Central Branch, located at 201 E. Market St., Charlottesville. The event is free and open to the public, but those who register are guaranteed a free catalog. Register to attend here.
Learn more about the Holsinger Studio Portrait Project, including the people who sat for portraits, on the project website.
While we can’t cover every story that’s important to you, we do our best to be responsive to your needs. We use tips from readers to choose which stories to cover, to incorporate information into broader reports or to help us decide how to grow Charlottesville Tomorrow. Here’s where you can tell us what you think we should be covering.
More on the history of central Virginia
Historic Rosenwald school in Albemarle County gets new life as a community center while preserving its past
Rebecca Kinney left St. John Elementary School as a student 71 years ago. Years later she led an effort to restore it.
A place where the dream of equality lived in Albemarle County
Philip Cobbs tells the story of his journey to reclaim the history of his ancestors’ land.
A ‘long time coming’: sale of enslaved people in Court Square recognized with state historical marker
“It’s time to put some things upright. I’m so grateful we are honoring this,” DeTeasa Brown Gathers told the crowd at the marker unveiling Monday.
An interpretive art project that documents Fluvanna County’s Black ancestry is on display at the Fluvanna Public Library 10 years after its conception
“I’ve never seen anything of this magnitude done before here in Fluvanna County,” said Lorretta Johnson-Morgan, one of 17 people portrayed in the central Virginia art project.
More local News
Charlottesville parents, teachers and activists ask for revote on school resource officers
The School Board has moved ahead with an agreement with the Charlottesville Police Department, but said it will devote an April work session to ‘further discussion’ of the matter.
After two years without independent counsel, Charlottesville’s police oversight board has an attorney to represent its interests to the city
New counsel will review suggested ordinance changes that will shape the Board’s role before a planned meeting with City Council.
Charlottesville city officials promise not to displace unhoused community members during an encampment cleanup effort this week
Citing public health, safety and environmental concerns, city staff and a local landscaping company will clean up trash and install portable toilets and sharps disposal containers at the site Tuesday, March 24 and Wednesday, March 25.
In Orange and Louisa, residents and public officials voice concerns over proposed Valley Link transmission line
Residents are speaking out about potential negative impacts on homes and farmland, and many local governments are finding their influence is limited, as the fate of the project rests with state regulators.
The Prolyfyck crew is growing — in the next 20 years, its leader wants to show up for the neighborhoods where they run
James “Littlez” Dowell co-founded Prolyfyck Run Creww as a way to bring communities together through fitness. But now it’s so much more.
