The Scurlock Studio - Poitraits in Black History

This image is from a Magazine of the Historical Society of Washington DC titled Washington History.

The captions reads; "In 1931, The Phyllis Wheatley YWCA established Camp Clarissa Scott near Highland Beach on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay. Highland Beach, founded as a black resort in 1893, was one of a handful of bayside resorts created by Washington's black population. Whites took a ferry across the bay to their own resorts. The range of skin tone captured so clearly here - challenges the then popularly held notion that the better classes of black Washington were restricted to light-skinned mulattoes."

This image was taken by The Scurlock Studio and is now part of an exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture NMAAHC. The studio was founded in 1911 by Addison N Scurlock. In the 1930s Addison Scurlock was joined in the photography business by his sons, George and Robert. Robert continues to operate the family business today.

Recognized for their artistic qualities by numerous art galleries, the pictures comprise a unusually rich source for the historian of Washington , D.C., particularly of it's black community.