Notice: Jim Alexander Papers Will Be Closed For Processing

by Laura Starratt, Head of Archives Processing for Rose Library

Jim Alexander, African American activist and photographer, is one of the most celebrated photographers of African American life and history in the United States, but he is also a renowned educator, business owner, rare book collector, and activist.  His papers were first acquired in 2014 (with subsequent additions) by the late Dr. Pellom McDaniels, former Curator of African American collections at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library as part of the library’s holdings on African American history and culture.  This collection offers a rich visual story of Atlanta’s 20th-century arts and culture history, especially during the Black Arts movement of the 1960s and 1970s. His work focuses primarily on images of Black daily life and provides over six decades of materials including photographs and other image formats, books, business files, correspondence, promotional materials, and various collected ephemera documenting the Neighborhood Arts Center, Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta politicians, and the struggle for human rights in Atlanta and across the South. 

Much of the collection remains unprocessed — including images of key events like the National Black Arts Festival and Atlanta Jazz Festival, and settings like the Neighborhood Arts Center (a community arts center significant in Atlanta’s Black Arts movement) – but will be arranged and described with support from a three-year grant from the Getty Foundation for Black Visual Arts Archives and Dr. N’Kosi Oates, curator of African American collections at Rose Library as the principal investigator (PI).  When a collection arrives at the Rose Library, its organization varies from neatly foldered papers alphabetized by subject to loose pages in a large garbage bag, and we often must conduct some arrangement to preserve the materials as well as create a limited description of the materials for immediate access.  However, for a collection as large and complex as the Jim Alexander papers, more processing is necessary, and the Getty grant will allow us to enhance the finding aid with a more detailed description, making it easier for researchers and course instructors to find what they need.

Starting November 20, 2025, the Jim Alexander papers will close through 2028, and Rose Library will hire a three-year project archivist to process the collection. While closed, researchers will not have access to the papers, but during that time, they will be arranged and described at the file- and item-level, with the goal to ease searching and make using the collection easier to use. The collection will be open by the end of 2028. Please return to this blog post for any updated timelines. Reach out to Rose Library (rose [dot] library [at] emory [dot] edu) if you have any questions.