Oct
2
Who is Singleton Anderson?
October 2, 2009 | 3 Comments | Subscribe to this post
Posted by Elizabeth Hull in Education, Landmarks & Attractions
This is a question I was asking myself from the time I started working on the Morton collection until recently, when I happily discovered the answer. A particular batch of Morton negatives labeled “Singleton C. Anderson, Rocky Pt.” caught my attention when I was making my first survey of Morton’s photographs. I noticed them because 1) they were striking black-and-white images from the circa 1950 period, and 2) they depicted African Americans in a non-athletic setting (somewhat unusual in Morton’s work).
Some quick Google searches at the time were fruitless; I suspected the images showed scenes from a Rosenwald School, but I didn’t have time to look into it any further. But the images, and Anderson, stuck with me. I just had a feeling they were important. So when I came upon them again recently during processing, I figured “what the heck,” and tried another Google search. Jackpot!
The site I found, Under the Kudzu, is run by educator and writer Claudia Stack, who is now in the process of creating a feature-length documentary film focused on the Rosenwald school movement as shown through two schools in Pender County, NC: the Canetuck Rosenwald School, a primary school, and the Pender County Training School, a high school. PCTS was located in, yes, Rocky Point. I emailed Claudia immediately and attached jpegs of the images included in this blog post. The next day, I got this reply:
I am ASTOUNDED at these images . . . I have been researching PCTS and Singleton C. Anderson’s profound impact on the region for the past six years, but images are very hard to come by. That is partly, I think, because he was a humble man, and partly because a tragic house fire claimed the life of his wife, Vanetta Anderson, and also all of their papers and pictures.
So, who in fact WAS Singleton C. Anderson?
Links
- ArchivesNext - Blog examining archives and technology
- Biographical Conversations with . . . Hugh Morton - An episode from the UNC TV program featuring a one-on-one conversation with Hugh Morton
- Chapel Hill Memories - Recollections and memorabilia from Chapel Hill native Charly Mann
- Duke Digital Collections - Updates and discussion from staff of the Duke Libraries’ Digital Collections Program
- Field Trip South - Blog of the Southern Folklife Collection (SFC), Wilson Library, featuring SFC, follow SFC holdings, events, sights, sounds, etc.
- Grandfather Mountain - Scenic attraction and nature preserve in Linville, NC owned by Morton from 1952 until his death in 2006
- Morton Biography from Grandfather Mountain website
- NC Collection Photographic Archives
- NC Digital Collections Collaboratory - For Digital Librarians in North Carolina to share experiences, exchange ideas, and develop collaborations.
- NC Miscellany Blog - Blog of the North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, UNC-CH
- Posterity Project - Blog related to archives, history, civic responsibility, and open access to public records in Tennessee
- Processing the Chew Family Papers - Reports on an NEH-funded project to process the papers of the Chew Family at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
- Southern Short Course in News Photography - America’s longest running photojournalism seminar, of which Morton was a founder
- Southern Sources - Interesting staff finds, curiosities, old favorites, and other cool stuff from Wilson Library’s Southern Historical Collection
- UNC Libraries
- UNC-CH Digital Collections homepage
