The James H. Karales Photographs span the years 1953 to 2005 and document the life and career of a well-known 20th century American photojournalist. The majority of the images in the collection originated from Karales' documentary work for magazine during the 1960s, and are divided into series named for the locations or subjects: Rendville, Ohio, a declining coal mining town and one of the first racially integrated towns in Appalachia; Vietnam, where Karales documented many scenes from the Vietnam War, and the largest series in the collection; the Lower East Side, New York City; and the Logging Series, where Karales documented the Pacific Northwest logging industry's practices and culture. Karales also shot many images of individuals and events of the Civil Rights movement during the 1960s, housed in three inter-related groups: the Martin Luther King Series; Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Series; and the Civil Rights Series. A number of Karales' images were adopted as visual icons of the U.S. civil rights movement, and were - and still are - widely reproduced. Publications where Karales' works appeared include , , , , , , Time-Life books, and encyclopedias. Karales also produced photographs for corporate annual reports. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The collection does not include Karales' photojournalistic work from East Germany (1970), or Gheel, Belgium (1961).

Formats in the collection include contact sheets, which serve as a thumbnail guide to almost all of the prints and negatives in the collection; proof prints and exhibit-quality prints of various sizes; negatives, which are closed to research use; and slides. All images are in black-and-white.

There is also a small group of supporting materials in the Manuscript and Printed Materials Series and the Audiovisual Materials Series that includes biographical documents such as Karales' curriculum vitae; Karales' essays on photography and teaching; publicity for exhibits and other events; correspondence with publishers; and clippings, magazine layouts, and other materials related to Karales' published work. The most recently dated item is an audiocassette of remarks on Karales' life and works made by Sam Stephenson at the opening of an exhibit of Karales' work at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University.

Arrangement Note:

Unless otherwise noted, the photographic items are arranged in the following sequence in each series: contact sheets, prints (from smallest to largest), slides, negatives, and finally, duplicates.

Processing and Research Use Note:

The best starting point for working with individual images is with the contact sheets. From these one can note the identifying codes for each image, which may include the job number, roll number, and frame (item) number, in that order throughout the inventory. Whenever possible, staff have matched these contact sheet numbers with individual prints and negatives and have noted them on the items and in the inventory below.

Most but not all jobs were given numbers. There are a few prints and other images that have no identifying numbers at all and they could not be otherwise identified from contact sheets or negatives. Some prints were given titles, but most are untitled.

Not all prints are represented by contact sheet images, and vice versa. The negatives are also not fully representative of all images in prints and contact sheets.

In order to facilitate the use of the materials, please consult with a Research Services archivist before coming to use the collection.