Danny Lyon collection, 1950s-2021
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Summary
- Creator:
- Lyon, Danny, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.), McCune, Billy, 1929-, 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) between 1962-1964, later materials related to his books and films about the civil rights movement and its leaders, his time spent documenting Texas prisons between 1967-1968, and later projects related to several of the prisoners he met during his time in Texas. Materials related to Lyon's engagement with SNCC span 1963-2021 and include various photographs, correspondence, printed ephemera, manuscripts, clippings, audiovisual materials, and other assorted files showcasing SNCC activities, civil rights marches, protests, demonstrations, and violence and discrimination against African Americans. Materials related to Lyon's work with Texas prisons span from 1950s-2011 and include photographs, correspondence, collected prison records and mugshots, legal files, clippings, manuscripts, drafts and maquettes, artwork, audiovisual materials, and other assorted files depicting the experiences of prisoners in several units of the Texas Department of Corrections (now the Texas Department of Criminal Justice) between 1967-1968, and several prisoners afterwards in several books published by Lyon including Conversations with the Dead, The Autobiography of Billy McCune, and Like a Thief's Dream. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts and the John Hope Franklin Center for African and American History and Culture.
- Extent:
- 26 Linear Feet
974 Gigabytes - Language:
- Materials in English
- Collection ID:
- RL.13021
Background
- Scope and content:
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Collection contains two bodies of work by Danny Lyon centered on SNCC and civil rights, and the Texas prison system and several prisoners.
The series SNCC and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement spans 1962-2011. The materials include original vintage prints and contact sheets created by Lyon while he worked as a staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) between 1962-1964 as well as later materials including gelatin silver 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 programs, Freedom Schools, civil rights marches, sit-ins, protests, demonstrations, violence and discrimination against Black Americans, intimidation and imprisonment of civil rights workers, voting and related activities, and other organizing activities.
The series Conversations with the Dead (Conversations) and the Texas Prison Archive spans from 1950s-2011 and focuses on several projects that began while in Texas including Conversations (1971) and its precursor Born to Lose, and related projects afterwards such as The Autobiography of Billy McCune (1973), and Like a Thief's Dream (2007). Materials include vintage photograph prints developed in Texas and New York in the 1960s and those in the 1970s-1980s, contact sheets, modern gelatin silver exhibition prints prepared by Chuck Kelton, oversize book dummy material, manuscripts by Danny Lyon and Billy McCune, drafts and maquettes, artwork, correspondence, prison records and mugshots, research files, legal records, audiovisual materials, and other assorted files. Photographs by Lyon focus on the experience of those incarcerated in the Texas Department of Corrections 1967-1968 of the following units: Diagnostic, Ellis, Ferguson, Goree, the Walls (also known as the Huntsville Unit), and Wynne including routine activities, labor, shakedowns and searches, mealtimes, various prison cells, and other scenes.
- Biographical / historical:
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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 Bachelor of Arts in History. After traveling to Cairo, Illinois in 1962 to support and document the civil rights movement, he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (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.
In 1967, while traveling, Lyon became interested in documenting Texas prisons after conversing with several prisoners at a rodeo. Gaining permission from the head of the Texas Department of Corrections at the time, Dr. George Beto, Lyon spent fourteen months around Huntsville, Texas and nearby areas in various prison units including Diagnostic, Ellis, Ramsey, Ferguson, the Walls, Wynne, and Goree, documenting prisoners in their routine lives, labor performed, searches by prison staff, and shakedowns. Some of the photographs taken during Lyon's time in Texas led to the portfolio entitled Born to Lose that was produced in the print shop within the Walls with the help of several prisoners. Shortly after his time in Texas, Lyon published an expanded version of this portfolio in 1971 known as Conversations with the Dead. Afterwards Lyon continued contact with several of the prisoners he befriended in Texas including Billy McCune, and James Ray Renton. While in correspondence with McCune, Lyon helped to edit and develop The Autobiography of Billy McCune in 1972. Through correspondence with Renton over the course of several decades and Lyon's extensive research into Renton's time on the run after the murder of a police officer in the 1970s and escape from an Arkansas prison in the 1980s, Lyon published Like a Thief's Dream in 2007.
Lyon has worked on numerous other documentary projects, films, and books, and his photographs are in museums and collections all over the world. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation for photography and filmmaking, and The Rockefeller Foundation for film. 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.
Source: Edward Houk Gallery, "Danny Lyon | Conversations with the Dead: Vintage Prints" https://www.houkgallery.com/exhibitions/31-danny-lyon-conversations-with-the-dead-vintage/press_release_text/, accessed February 7, 2025.
- Acquisition information:
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The SNCC and the 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 Conversations with the Dead and the Texas Prison Archive series was received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library as a purchase from Danny Lyon in 2024.
- Processing information:
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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.
Updated collection description and processing of the Conversations with the Dead and the Texas Prison Archive series by Tere Elizalde, April 2025.
Accessions described in this collection guide: 2023-0176, 2024-0034
- Arrangement:
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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
Prisoners as artists
Prisoners as authors -- Biography
Prisoners -- Correspondence
African American prisoners -- Photographs
Prisoners -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United States
Prisoners -- United States -- Photographs
Escaped prisoners
Solitary confinement -- United States
Death row inmates - Format:
- Audiocassettes
Black-and-white photographs
Color photographs
Contact sheets
Digital images
Digital moving image formats
Gelatin silver prints
Interviews
Video recordings
Scrapbooks - Names:
- Archive of Documentary Arts (Duke University)
John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture
Mississippi Freedom Schools -- Photographs
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963) (Washington, D.C.)
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.)
Texas. Department of Corrections
Lyon, Danny
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
McCune, Billy, 1929-
Renton, James Ray
Cassell, Dinker - Places:
- Southern States -- Photographs
Southern States -- Race relations
Southern States -- Social conditions -- 20th century
Huntsville (Tex.)
Contents
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Access restricted. Some materials are electronic media and are closed to use. Contact Research Services with questions.
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Access note. Some materials in this collection are fragile audiovisual/photographic formats that may need to be reformatted before use. Contact Research Services for access.
- Terms of access:
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- Preferred citation:
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[Identification of item], Danny Lyon Collection, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University
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- https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1q44p