[EARLY PHOTOGRAPHY]. Album containing photos of a multi-generational African American family in Washington, DC. Ca early-to-mid 20th Century.

14 x 11 in. stringbound album containing over 150 photographs chronicling the life of an African American family in Washington, DC. Photographs are mounted recto/verso, ranging in size from 1 x 1 1/2 in. to 10 x 8 in., along with cards, notes, certificates, and other ephemera including a marriage certificate recording the 1910 union of Bernard Dent and Mary Delany in Prince George County, MD, and a 1948 letter from a teacher about a student named Samuel Smith. The African American teacher's photograph is pasted on the letter, and a pair photographs of an African American young man (presumably Samuel Smith) are mounted to the album page on either side of the letter. Another item featured is a 1949 invoice for dance classes for the same young man, Samuel Smith. The instructor has written a note of high praise about Smith. Interestingly, some of the photographs feature painted backgrounds with symbolic Washington DC landmarks depicted including the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument.