Jackson State University preserves visual legacy thanks to Getty Images Grant
JACKSON, Miss., PRNewswire -- The first image Jackson State University Archivist Darlita Ballard scanned as part of the inaugural Getty Images Photo Archives Grant for Historically Black Colleges was of royalty: A photo of a JSU queen.
JSU is one of four recipients of the $500,000 Getty Images Photo Archives Grant made possible by the Getty Family and the philanthropic organization Stand Together. The program supports the digitization of 50,000 archival photographs from JSU’s library. The support extends to future images captured with camera equipment donated by Getty Images, a preeminent global visual content creator and marketplace. Watch video here.
Locord Wilson, Ph.D., dean of libraries at JSU, said the grant provides equipment, training and the ability to illuminate the university’s photo archives in a way the university could only once
dream about.
Cassandra Illidge, vice president of global partnerships at Getty Images and executive director of the HBCU Grants Program at Getty Images, said the program fits with her role of making available more diverse content for Getty’s customers, which are advertising agencies, corporations and media outlets.
JSU retains all copyright of its photos and one digitized, the historical content is placed in a newly created stand-alone photo collection named the Historically Black Colleges & Universities Collection that is available for licensing on gettyimages. com.
All revenue generated from the images that are preserved through the grant will be funneled into programs, with 50 percent going to grant recipients, 30 percent for a financial donation
to a scholarship fund focused on furthering the education of students at HBCUs and 20 percent reinvested to fund the Getty Images Photo Archive Grants for HBCUs each year.
Using a professional quality, flatbed scanner and software donated by Epson, a partner in the project, and after training from Getty Images’ team, Ballard and three JSU students have focused their attention on scanning the 256 photos in the Gibbs- Green Collection. The photos document the May 15,1970, tragic shooting that took place on campus and resulted in the deaths of Phillip Lafayette Green, a JSU student, and James Earl Green, a Jim Hill High School senior.
The 90 photos in the Tracy Sugarman Collection that document the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964 have been digitized. So has the collection of photography by Richard Beadle, a
Jackson photographer known for documenting life in Jackson on Farish Street when it was one of the largest African American districts in the South.
The photos being scanned are diverse in subject matter and includes images of JSU sports legends such as Walter Payton, Robert Brazile and Willie Richardson as well as author Margaret
Walker Alexander and female writers such as Alice Walker and Nikki Giovanni that Alexander invited to campus to participate in the Phyllis Wheatley Poetry Festival in 1973.
Securing information about when a photo was taken, the name of the photographer and the names of people pictured is an important detail of the program.
Ballard and students search through old yearbooks, newsletters and newspapers such as the Jackson Advocate and speak with professors and staff members to uncover the names of people
in photos and learn more.
