BELL, MALCOLM, 1913-
Drums and Shadows photograph collection

Restrictions on Access

Unrestricted access.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Special restrictions apply: Requests for duplication should be referred to the Library of Congress, owner of the original negatives. Call number: LOT 13351.

Source

Gift of Malcolm and Muriel Bell, 1994.

Custodial History

The Bells are the photographers. This exhibit, entitled "Drums and Shadows: Photographs of African-Americans from the Georgia Coastal Region," was mounted in the Schatten Gallery, Woodruff Library 1 February-20 March 1994. Mr. and Mrs. Bell donated these photogrpahs to the library. Director of the Schatten Gallery Valerie Watkins then transferred these items to Special Collections. These photographs were reproduced from original negatives of photographs taken by the Bells as part of Georgia's Writers' Project program of the Works Project Administration in the 1930s.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], Drums and Shadows photograph collection, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Appraisal Note

Acquired by Barbara J. Mann as part of the Rose Library's holdings in African American culture and history and Georgia history.

Processing

Processed by Barbara J. Mann, 1994.

Biographical Note

Malcolm Bell Jr., photographer, historian, and bank president, was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1913. His parents were Malcolm and Laura Palmer Bell. Bell’s grandfather, Frank, was the publisher of the Savannah Morning News and his father was part of the administrative staff.

Bell attended the University of North Carolina, but was unable to graduate due to an auto accident. In 1939, at the age of twenty-six, Bell and his wife, Muriel Barrow Bell, became involved with the Savannah Unit of the Georgia Writers’ Project, a Works Progress Administration program, to interview and photograph coastal Georgia blacks who were of African descent. Under the leadership of Mary Granger, the Savannah Unit interviewed ca. one hundred thirty-four people in twenty locations. Malcolm and Muriel Bell served as the photographers. The results of this project were published in 1940 and entitled Drums and Shadows: Survival Studies Among the Coastal Georgia Negroes (Athens: University of Georgia Press). It was reprinted in 1986.

Bell served as president and chairman of the Savannah Bank and Trust Company. He also authored three books, Savannah Ahoy (Savannah: Pigeonhole Press, 1959), Savannah (Savannah: Historic Savannah Foundation, 1977), and Major Butler’s Legacy: Five Generations of a Slaveholding Family (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987). Bell has also published articles in The Georgia Review and The Georgia Historical Quarterly. Sources used to compile this note include GHS Footnotes (Fall 1992), 6 December 1987 article from Savannah News Press, and Drums and Shadows: Survival Studies Among the Georgia Coastal Negroes (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1940).

Scope and Content Note

The Drums and Shadows photograph collection consists of reprints of Malcolm and Muriel Bell's photographs of African Americans living on the coast of Georgia including Possum Point and Pin Point, Chatham County; Sapelo Island, McIntosh County; St. Mary's, Camden County; St. Simons Island, Glynn County; and Sunbury, Liberty County, Georgia. The photographs were used in an exhibit mounted by the Schatten Gallery, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University, February 1 - March 20, 1994. They are arranged in the Checklist of the Exhibition order. The number designation after each photograph’s title corresponds to this list. Commentary on the exhibit as a whole, along with commentary for each portion of the exhibit, were written by Muriel Barrow Bell.