Skip to main content

Doris Ulmann papers

 Collection
Identifier: BCA 0009 SAA 008

Scope and Contents

The papers of Doris Ulmann reflect her life and career as a photographer of the southern Appalachian people, the activities of the Doris Ulmann Foundation, and the disposition of her photographs. Included in the collection is personal correspondence, Ulmann’s will and bequest, Ulmann Foundation correspondence, and photographic slides of Ulmann's prints.

Listen to and / or read transcript of Lester Pross' Series VI Lecture

Dates

  • created: 1930-1976

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Records can be accessed through the Reading Room, Berea College Special Collections and Archives, Hutchins Library, Berea College.

Conditions Governing Use

No restrictions other than Federal Copyright regulations.  Please cite information.

Biographical / Historical

Doris Ulmann was born in New York City in 1884.  She attended the School of Ethical Culture at Columbia University and later studied photography at the Clarence H. White School of Photography. She married and divorced Charles H. Jaeger, a prominent orthopedic surgeon. Ulmann’s published works include Portraits of the Medical Faculty of the John Hopkins University (1922), A Portrait of American Editors (1925), Roll, Jordan, Roll (1933) text by Julia Peterkin, and Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands (1937), text by Allen Eaton). In 1971 the Jargon Society published The Appalachian Photographs of Doris Ulmann, with a remembrance by John Jacob Niles, a folklorist and ballad collector who accompanied Ulmann on her trips through the Southern Appalachians. Ulmann’s photographic portraits of southern Appalachian people, taken in the late 1920s and early 1930s, are classics. During her time in the mountains, Ulmann showed a special fondness for the John C. Campbell Folk School and Berea College, and portraits of students and people from these two areas are found in her collection. Ulmann died in New York City on August 28, 1934.  Her will and bequest established the Doris Ulmann Foundation.

Extent

9.00 boxes_(general)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The papers of Doris Ulmann reflect her life and career as a photographer of the southern Appalachian people, the activities of the Doris Ulmann Foundation, and the disposition of her photographs.

Related Materials

Related materials can be found through the Doris Ulmann Galleries website.

http://dulmanngalleries.berea.edu/

Other Descriptive Information

The Doris Ulmann papers were collected as a result of Berea College’s close association with the Doris Ulmann Foundation.  In addition to the papers in the Southern Appalachian Archives, the college possesses a number of copy negatives of Doris Ulmann photographs which are under the jurisdiction of the Berea College Art Collection and administered by the Doris Ulmann Foundation.  Surviving original negatives/plates are preserved at the University of Oregon’s Special Collections Library.

Approximately 3100 posthumous prints, and a visual index, are held in the Berea College Art Collection.  All requests for use of the Berea photographs should be made to the Director of the Doris Ulmann Galleries. For more information about the Doris Ulmann Galleries and the Berea College Art Collection visit: http://dulmanngalleries.berea.edu/

BCA 0009 SAA 008

Processing Information

The finding aid was updated in February 2015, March 2023, and October 2024.

Title
Doris Ulmann papers Finding Aid
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
eng
Edition statement
Updated March 2023, November 2024

Revision Statements

  • 2024-10: Finding aid revised and updated

Repository Details

Part of the Berea College Special Collections and Archives Repository

Contact:
Hutchins Library
100 Campus Drive
Berea Kentucky 40404 US
859.985.3262