Jesse Pyrant Andrews photographs and oral histories, 1973-2022

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View — Jesse Andrews Photographs

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Summary

Creator:
Andrews, Jesse Pyrant, 1949-
Abstract:
Jesse Pyrant Andrews is an American photographer based in rural southern Virginia. Collection comprises 301 black-and-white photographs and 46 oral history interviews by photographer Jesse Pyrant Andrews, documenting rural and small-town life in the Piedmont region of Virginia and North Carolina. Major themes center on the landscapes and people of the region; tobacco cultivation; the lives of farmers, war veterans, small business owners, and laid-off workers; local architecture and historic sites; traditional crafts and music; and new patterns of economics and society in rural Virginia. Andrews's Veterans Project has become a larger focus over the years; it now comprises over 30 portraits and associated audio interviews, chiefly with veterans of the Vietnam and Gulf Wars. Additional projects include materials related to the Carter-Wooding families of southern Virginia; views from an Amtrak train; views of an historic plantation home, Mountainview; and street scenes and portraits taken in New York City, California, and Massachusetts. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.
Extent:
15 Linear Feet (19 boxes)
59 Gigabytes (196 audio files)
Physical description:
Photographs are arranged in order as received. Original negative identifiers and titles assigned by the photographer have been retained. The original identifier on the back of each print typically comprises codes for the body of work, negative file, and negative number. There are a few unnumbered prints. Each print also has been given a Rubenstein Library identifier.
Language:
Material in English
Collection ID:
RL.00043

Background

Scope and content:

Collection comprises 301 black-and-white photographs and 46 oral history recordings by Jesse Pyrant Andrews documenting rural and small-town life in the Piedmont plateau of central southern Virginia and northern North Carolina. Most of the images are portraits of local people, along with scenes from homesteads, small towns, farms, and grave sites. Major themes include tobacco cultivation; the lives of farmers, migrant workers, war veterans, small business owners, and laid-off textile workers; regional architecture; historic sites; and traditional activities such as music-making, constructing handmade firearms, and working with leather. Together, the images and interviews speak to significant changes in this rural Piedmont region's cultures and economies as it has transitioned into the 20th and then the 21st centuries.

In the Veterans Project series, Andrews documents through portraits and in-depth audio interviews the experiences of U.S. military veterans, primarily in the Vietnam and Gulf Wars, but also in World War II. The series includes a Vietnam War veteran's manuscript memoir and a tribute essay to one veteran, written by Andrews. Some of these resources may contain disturbing content.

The Carter-Wooding Project, also comprising photographs and several oral histories, documents two Halifax County, Virginia families, the Carters and the Woodings, and their rural property dating back to an 18th-century Huguenot land grant. This project forms part of the Portraits and Virginia series in this collection. Interior and exterior shots of a former plantation, "Mountain View," in Tightsqueeze, Virginia (sold at auction in 2020) are featured in the series Life At Large.

Photographs from the series 13-Month Crop, documenting tobacco farming, were featured in a solo exhibit of Andrews' work hosted by the Rubenstein Library at Duke University in 2002.

Portraits and oral histories in the Burlington Mills series document the experiences of former southern Virginia textile workers.

Another series documents a trip on an Amtrak train. Rounding out the collection are images of street life and people in New York City, California, and Massachusetts, and a few of patterns in plants and ice.

Most of the photographs are accompanied by captions written by the photographer, commenting on the individuals, their life experiences, and aspects of local culture and society. Captions for the Veterans series include biographies as well as historical details related to several wars in which the U.S. was involved.

A large selection of photographs from the Andrews collection has been digitized and is available on the Duke Digital Collections website; links to this content are included in this inventory for corresponding prints.

Biographical / historical:

Documentary photographer and oral historian Jesse Pyrant Andrews (b. 1949) has photographed the changing rural landscapes of Virginia and North Carolina and the lives of its inhabitants since the mid 1970s. His documentary projects include in-depth oral history interviews that provide an important context for his portraits of Virginia veterans, farmers, immigrants, and former textile mill workers. Andrews studied at the New England School of Photography in Boston, Massachusetts, working primarily with photographers Olive Pierce and George Dewolfe. He shoots 35mm black-and-white film which he prints in his traditional darkroom.

Acquisition information:
The Jesse Pyrant Andrews photographs and oral histories were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as purchases from 2003 to 2023.
Processing information:

Originally processed by Elizabeth Arnold, John Mayrose, 2007.

Processed and described by Paula Jeannet and Matthew Warren, December 2012; Clare Callahan and Paula Jeannet, August 2013; Craig Breaden, Paula Jeannet, 2015-2023; Meghan Lyon, 2024.

Accessions represented in this collection guide: 2003-0229, 2007-0029, 2007-0069, 2008-0040, 2008-0276, 2011-0012, 2012-0040, 2012-0043, 2012-0098, 2014-0212, 2016-0031, 2017-0094, 2018-0040, 2019-0148, 2020-0075, 2021-0161, 2023-0003, 2024-0018.

Arrangement:

Arranged in the following project series: 13-Month Crop: One Year in the Life of a Piedmont Virginia Tobacco Farm; Bill Davis and Davis Family; Portraits; Virginia; Train Project, View from Amtrak Northeast Regional; Burlington Mills; Life at Large and Other Work; and Veterans Project.

Physical facet:

301 photographic prints; 123 optical compact discs

121 WAV preservation files (54 gigabytes); 121 MP3 use copy files (5 gigabytes)

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Access note. Collection contains electronic records. Listening copies must be accessed in our reading room. Contact Research Services for access.

Access note. Original audiovisual media are closed to use. Digital audio files are available on request. Contact Research Services for access.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Images may not be reproduced in any form without permission by donor. Use is restricted to educational, non-commercial purposes; any other use requires permission of donor.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Jesse Pyrant Andrews photographs and oral histories, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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