CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/8/2018

Celebrate Black History with William Bullard's Early 20th Century Photos

“Portrait of Mrs. Ardelle Clarissa Wanso and Her Daughter Eileen” (c. 1902) is reproduced from Rediscovering an American Community of Color: The Photographs of William Bullard, 1897–1917, a collection of 230 previously unpublished photographs (from glass negatives) of the African American and Nipmuc communities of Worcester, Massachusetts, at the turn of the century. Bullard captioned almost all of the photographs, making this book an invaluable historical resource. For example: “Boston-born Ardelle Wanso’s maiden name was Barbadoes. The marriage record for her and her husband, William G. Wanso, lists their professions as waitress and waiter, respectively. William’s father had ben a slave in Virginia.”