Inventory of the Al Clayton Photographs, 1960s-1980s

Collection Number 4859

Manuscripts Department, University Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Contact Information:

Manuscripts Department

CB#3926, Wilson Library

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890

Phone: 919/962-1345

Fax: 919/962-3594

Email: mss@email.unc.edu

URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/

Descriptive Summary

Repository

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.

Creator

Clayton, Al, 1934-

Title

Al Clayton Photographs, 1960s-1980s

Call Number

4859

Language of Materials

Materials in English

Extent

Items: About 3500

Linear Feet: 2.5

Administrative Information

Restrictions to Access

This collection has restrictions to access. Please see details below or contact the Manuscripts Department for more information.

Usage Restrictions

Note that there is not a negative available for each image on the contacts sheets. It is not possible to reproduce images that appear only on a contact sheet.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Al Clayton in December 1996 (Acc. 96201).

Processing Information

Processed by: Tim Pyatt, January 1997

Encoded by: Roslyn Holdzkom, January 2007

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Al Clayton Photographs #4859, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Online Catalog Headings

These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.

Clayton, Al, 1934-

Coles, Robert. Still hungry in America.

Cookery, American--Southern style.

Country music--Photographs.

Documentary photography--United States--History--20th century.

Egerton, John. Southern food : at home, on the road, in history.

Grand Ole Opry (Theater)--Photographs.

Photographers--United States--History--20th century.

Photography--United States--History--20th century.

Poor--Southern States--Photographs.

Southern States--Photographs.

Biographical Note

Photographer Al Clayton of Atlanta, Ga., was trained as a medical photographer and photojournalist. In the 1960s, he was asked by the Southern Regional Council help provide Congress with evidence of malnutrition among the poor in the American South. In summer 1967, Clayton traveled through the Mississippi Delta, eastern Kentucky, Georgia, and Alabama, documenting poor people's lives. In July 1967, his photographs were presented at a hearing on Capitol Hill, where they helped to spur senators to call for increased funding for anti-poverty programs. Two years later, the photographs were collected in Robert Coles's Still Hungry in America (1969).

Clayton also contributed photographs to books by John Egerton's Southern Food: At Home, On the Road, In History (1987) and to humourous books, chiefly about food, including Critter Cuisine (1992) and Dreadful Delicacies (1993), both with Mary Ann Clayton, and The Quotable Hog: Root or Die (1994).

Collection Overview

The collection includes contact sheets (proof sheets containing contract prints from more than one negative that are often used to select individual images for printing) and photographic negatives by photographer Al Clayton of Atlanta, Ga. Included are images used in Still Hungry in America by Robert Coles (1969) and Southern Food: At Home, On the Road, In History by John Egerton (1987). There are also images relating to country music, the Grand Ole Opry, and to life in the American South.

Arrangement of Collection

1. Contact Sheets
2. Negatives

Detailed Description of the Collection