The Duke University Center for Documentary Studies Literacy Through Photography Records comprise negatives, contact sheets, and written work (generally handwritten or printed observations, comments, stories, poems, drawings) documenting school children’s views of their community, Durham, NC. The materials would be useful to those interested in visual culture, the psychogeography of children, and Durham history, society and living environment, as well as those interested in pedagogy and developing an arts-based curriculum in public schools. The units collected and organized in the Records are LTP class projects, sorted first by format, then chronologically.
Along with the physical negatives, contact sheets, and writings transferred to the Rubenstein Library in 2002, LTP coordinators provided detailed supplementary information about the compilation, organization, and selection process of the collection, as well as a finding aid in the form of an Excel database. The Excel file is a master database of individual student projects organized by year, and sortable by other variables; the database is accessible electronically at the Rubenstein Library. A print copy of the database and other supporting documentation is also available in the RMBSCL inventory file, and should be consulted by patrons using this collection.
The collection also includes 56 exhibit-quality color prints of LTP in Tanzania include images of children learning to use digital cameras, demonstrating their literacy skills, and exhibiting their projects. Also includes images of some volunteers, LTP staff, and Tanzanian teachers.
The Literacy through Photography (LTP) program in the Durham Public Schools was started in 1989 by photographer, teacher, and writer Wendy Ewald. The program encourages students to find their voice through photographs and written text; students photograph scenes from their lives and then learn to develop and print the film in the school darkroom. These images become the catalyst for subsequent written investigation of self, community, family, and dreams. LTP provides training to middle and elementary school teachers, and partners university students and community volunteers with LTP classrooms.
Since 1990, LTP has worked intensively in Durham with children of diverse ages and backgrounds. The emphasis on children's lives and environments as the source of their own creative expression, as well as the focus on the material procedures of photography, has gained international attention. LTP has been invited to give workshops and train teachers and arts organizations throughout the United States and internationally, setting a standard for innovative arts education programs.
In 1994, LTP joined the Duke Center for Documentary Studies. From 1994-1999 the majority of LTP materials produced in classrooms were either given back to the students or remained in the classroom with the teacher. In 1999, LTP made plans to create an archive, and began the process of collecting past work from LTP teachers. The task of collecting and organizing this work, from 1994-1999, was undertaken by Julia Beck Hoggson in the fall of 1999. The material was transferred to the Rubenstein Library in 2002.
The LTP project in Arusha, Tanzania, began in 2004 when Sister Cities of Durham brought two Tanzanian teachers to the Center for Documentary Studies to attend an LTP workshop. Building on these connections, LTP staff and Duke Engage students traveled to Arusha in 2008 and 2009 to offer workshops to hundreds of primary-school teachers, from all over the district, and to co-teach lessons that involved more than 2,450 students.
Processed by Katie Hyde and Literacy Through Photography staff; Elizabeth Arnold
Completed February 11, 2003
Updated by Meghan Lyon, October 2011
Encoded by Ann G. Langford, Elizabeth Arnold, Meghan Lyon
Materials may not have been ordered and described beyond their original condition.
