Photograph Album Belonging to Mabel Williams of Atlanta, Georgia, Documenting High-School Life at Booker T. Washington High School, Friends and Family, 1940s-1950s

Mostly Atlanta, 1950. Leatherette album measuring 12 x 9 inches. With over 225 images, most 4 ½ x 2 ¾ inches. Very well preserved and nearly complete with three empty slots, about fine overall. Near Fine. A compelling visual record of the childhood of Mable Williams of Atlanta, Georgia, a high school student at Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta, the first public high school for African-American students in the state. Williams graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1953, per a newspaper article included here, and would attend Spelman College. Composed mostly of snapshot photographs of her friends and family, as a group the album provides a visual record of a vibrant network of family and friends in Atlanta during the time period.

The album begins with a picture showing her as a girl, alongside a picture of a house, perhaps hers, and traces her life through early adulthood through snapshots and family photographs. We find records of Williams performing at the Greater Atlanta Music Festival in 1950 as a representative of her high school. A newspaper article laid in shows Williams in a newspaper showing her graduation picture and stating that she will attend Spelman College in Atlanta in September of 1953. Pictures show her in New York City, visiting a friend at N.Y.U. She would later marry Billy Reid, a local jazz musician from Atlanta, and would remain active in the Spelman community after graduating in 1957.

Overall a very well preserved document of the African-American community in Atlanta during the 1940s and 1950s.