The Barnwell Archives...
The Barnwell Archives consists of over 1,000 black and white family photographs from c.1875 - 1975, and over 600 hand written family documents, notes and letters from 1890 - 1994 which have been kept by the Robinson / Barnwell family. In 1927, at the age of 21, my mother left her home in Los Angeles, California and traveled alone to New York City to enter one of two "colored" schools of nursing (Lincoln). Within this archives is a portrait of my mother and her family, in three cities, told through the photos and letters she saved throughout her life from 1906-1994.

My father was violinist, pedagogue, and inventor. He documented his life 1897 - 1990, by collecting news clippings of friends and colleagues, concert flyers and programs, correspondence, sheet music, recordings and artifacts.

There is a remarkable treasure in these archives.

I am looking for a publisher interested in a coffee table book that shares these materials. To my knowledge, no one has ever published a book of letters and photographs from a single African American family.

Photoblog - Barnwell Archives photo albums