Danny Lyon collection, 1963-2022

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Restrictions:
The "Conversations with the Dead" and the Texas Prison Archive series is closed until processing.
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Summary

Creator:
Lyon, Danny, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.), Archive of Documentary Arts (Duke University), and John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture
Abstract:
Danny Lyon (1942- ) is a photographer, writer, and filmmaker originally from New York. The collection contains photographs and other writings created while Lyon served as a staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 1962-1964, as well as later materials related to his books and films about the civil rights movement and its leaders. The collection also contains a later body of work by Lyon titled the Texas Prison Archive, which includes photographs, correspondence, film, and writings collected and created by Lyon in the late 1960s in the Texas prison system. These materials culminated in "Conversations with the Dead," first published by Lyon in 1971.
Extent:
14 Linear Feet
Language:
Materials in English
Collection ID:
RL.13021

Background

Scope and content:

Collection contains two bodies of work by Danny Lyon: the SNCC and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement project, and the Texas Prison Archive project.

Lyon's SNCC and civil rights materials include original vintage prints and contact sheets created by Lyon while he worked as a staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (1962-1964), as well as later materials including fine prints prepared by Chuck Kelton; original footage and later interviews with SNCC veterans like John Lewis and Julian Bond; correspondence between Lyon and other SNCC participants; notes and drafts prepared by Lyon, including materials related to his books on the civil rights movement; and other ephemera related to SNCC and its later reunions and conferences. Lyon's civil rights-era photographs document SNCC's administration and leadership; organizational meetings and SNCC-sponsored community and public programs; freedom schools; civil rights marches, sit-ins, protests, and demonstrations; violence and discrimination against Black Americans; intimidation and imprisonment of civil rights workers; and other organizing activities. This series was acquired as a gift from Kohler Foundation, Inc. in 2023.

Biographical / historical:

Danny Lyon is a photographer, writer, and filmmaker. He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1942 to Jewish parents. In 1959 he bought his first camera, an Exa SLR. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1963 with a B.A. in Philosophy. After traveling to Cairo, Illinois in 1962 to support and document the civil rights movement, he joined the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee's (SNCC), and spent the next few years documenting the movement and SNCC activists through photography, as well as directly participating in protests and rallies. In those early years, Lyon was especially close to African American activist John Lewis, and they became lifelong friends. After 1964, Lyon turned to other documentary photography projects, and began writing books and making films. Lyon's photographs are in museums and collections all over the world, and in 2016 the Whitney Museum featured a comprehensive retrospective of his work, entitled "A Message to the Future" . In 2022 Lyon was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame.

Acquisition information:

The SNCC and U.S. Civil Rights Movement series of the Danny Lyon collection was received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift from the Kohler Foundation, Inc. in 2023.

The Texas Prison Archive was received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library as a purchase from Danny Lyon in 2024.

Processing information:

Portions processed and described by Paula Jeannet and Zoe Finiasz, January 2024. Initial SNCC and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement description and processing provided by staff at the Kohler Foundation.

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2023-0176. Accessions pending description: 2024-0034.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into two series: SNCC and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and Conversations with the Dead and the Texas Prison Archive.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Subjects

Click on terms below to find related finding aids on this site. For other related materials in the Duke University Libraries, search for these terms in the Catalog.

Subjects:
African American civil rights workers -- Photographs
African American women civil rights workers -- Photographs
African Americans -- Civil rights -- Press coverage
African Americans -- Social conditions -- Southern States
Civil rights demonstrations -- Photographs
Civil rights movements -- Southern States -- History -- 20th century
Civil rights movements -- Southern States -- Photographs
Civil rights workers -- Southern States -- Photographs
Documentary Photography -- Southern States
Photojournalism -- Southern States
Poverty -- Southern States -- Photographs
Suffrage -- Southern States
Segregation -- Southern States
Voter registration -- Southern States -- 1960-1970 -- Photographs
Format:
Audiocassettes
Black-and-white photographs
Color photographs
Contact sheets
Digital images
Digital moving image formats
Gelatin silver prints
Interviews
Video recordings
Names:
Mississippi Freedom Schools -- Photographs
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963) (Washington, D.C.)
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
Archive of Documentary Arts (Duke University)
John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture
Baker, Ella, 1903-1986
Forman, James, 1928-2005 -- Photographs
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968 -- Photographs
Lewis, John, 1940-2020 -- Interviews
Lewis, John, 1940-2020 -- Photographs
Lyon, Danny
Places:
Southern States -- Photographs
Southern States -- Race relations
Southern States -- Social conditions -- 20th century

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials


Restrictions:

The "Conversations with the Dead" and the Texas Prison Archive series is closed until processing.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the Rubenstein Library's Citations, Permissions, and Copyright guide.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Danny Lyon Collection, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.