Digitizing Richard Samuel Roberts’ Black-South-Carolina Photo Archive

A collection of nearly 6,000 glass-plate negatives taken by photographer Richard Samuel Roberts of Columbia’s Black families and community is now freely viewable online. The effort, completed in 2024, was the culmination of decades of work by the Roberts family, University of South Carolina (USC) librarians, and the university’s civil-rights center, which paid students to scan the images and make them searchable.

Good Good Good

Roberts moved his family from Fernandina, Florida, to Columbia in 1920, settling on Wayne Street in the working-class Black neighborhood known as Ward One. He worked as a custodian at the U.S. Post Office from 4 a.m. until noon, then rented a small studio on Washington Street where he photographed farmers, socialites, students, magicians, and community leaders using glass-plate negatives.

Good Good Good

The Roberts estate sold the archive to USC in 2020; Abby Cole, a spokeswoman for the university’s library system, said the purchase was funded by “tens of thousands of dollars” raised by the University South Caroliniana Society. In 2024 the civil-rights center contracted students to digitize the negatives, first with a flat-bed scanner and later with a high-end camera scanner. While many plates were in excellent condition, some were cracked or deteriorating, requiring careful handling.

Good Good Good

Bobby Donaldson, executive director of the civil-rights center and a history professor at USC, described Roberts as both an artist and a historian who deliberately countered prevailing stereotypes. Abby Cole emphasized the photographs’ “depth of humanity” and their power to spark personal memory. Judge Michelle Hurley highlighted how the pictures help descendants identify ancestors and connect with their heritage.

Good Good Good

• “What we are seeing when we look at these pictures is African Americans the way they wanted to be seen and remembered,” — Rachel Young

Good Good Good

• “There’s just something different about these photos,” — Abby Cole, a spokeswoman for the university’s library system

Good Good Good

• “People wanted their stories told, so they went to Mr. Roberts,” — Michelle Hurley, family court judge

Good Good Good

• “It was a passion to kind of recapture that history,” — Abby Cole, a spokeswoman for the university’s library system

Good Good Good