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Inventory of the Hugh Mangum Photographs, circa 1890-1922 and undated

Images from this collection have been digitized and are available in the Hugh Mangum Photographs - Duke Digital Collections.

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Glass Plate Negatives Series, Circa 1890-1922 and undated

(15 boxes)

Albumen glass plate negatives contain images of individuals, small groups, and large groups. Often plates contain multiple images in rows, up to 12 per plate. Most of the individuals' names are unknown but some names have been determined through an ongoing collaboration with researchers and other individuals. All the negatives have been digitized and are available on the website created for the Hugh Mangum images; please see the online images for more information about the actual content of each negative. Also, an Excel database is available that offers limited information for each negative: size, composition (individual, small group, or large group), genders, presence of animals, and identification number.

Glass plate negatives are arranged in size order. Number ranges for each size are not inclusive.

[CLOSED: Because of their vulnerability, glass plate negatives are closed to research access. For viewing purposes patrons may use online digitized images or prints.]

Negatives N1-N688

(3.25"x4.25"

Box 1

Negatives N3-N52

(4.25"x6.5")

Box 2

Negatives N54-103

(4.25"x6.5")

Box 3

Negatives N105-156

(4.25"x6.5")

Box 4

Negatives N157-208

(4.25"x6.5")

Box 5

Negatives N210-259

(4.25"x6.5")

Box 6

Negatives N260-311

(4.25"x6.5")

Box 7

Negatives N312-366

(4.25"x6.5")

Box 8

Negatives N369-430

(4.25"x6.5")

Box 9

Negatives N432-498

(4.25"x6.5")

Box 10

Negatives N499-555

(4.25"x6.5")

Box 11

Negatives 556-605

(4.25"x6.5")

Box 12

Negatives 606-653

(4.25"x6.5")

Box 13

Negatives 654-665

(5x7")

Box 13

Negatives 360-545

(6.5x8.5")

Box 14

Broken glass plate negatives, N635-646, inclusive, and one unnumbered plate (various sizes)

Box 15

Prints Series, circa 1890-1922 and undated

(1 box)

Fifty-three black and white prints were made of selected negatives and are housed in this series. Some are original contact prints; others are modern and most of these may have been made in support of the West Point on the Eno Mangum museum. Most prints are 8x10" but there are also smaller prints; there are also a few oversize prints which are housed separately, including am original panoramic photograph.

Unidentified white woman.

Box 17 Image P180

Unidentified white woman with two children, a toddler daughter and an infant.

Box 17 Image P278

Two unidentified white couples.

Box 17 Image P283

Three unidentified white women and two dogs.

Box 17 Image P368

Unidentified seated young white woman.

Box 17 Image P372

Unidentified white little girl, outside.

Box 17 Image P373

Five unidentified young white women.

Box 17 Image P406

Unidentified white woman wearing a hat.

Box 17 Image P407

Unidentified white man.

Box 17 Image P424

Unidentified seated white woman wearing a hat.

Box 17 Image P436

Print of negative containing twelve penny portraits, most of unidentified black people.

Box 17 Image P22

Print of negative containing 22 penny camera portraits of unidentified white people.

Box 17 Image P24

Print of a negative containing eight portraits of unidentified white people.

Box 17 Image P28

Unidentified white young woman.

Box 17 Image P42

Print of a negative containing nine penny camera portraits, all of unidentified teenaged boys and girls and one unidentified white woman.

Box 17 Image P44

Landscape print of mountainside with wooden rail fence at base. In the distance, along the ridges, stand small groups of unidentified white people.

Box 17 Image P400

Unidentified white man outside on a horse.

Box 17 Image P418

Mill with horse-drawn wagon and unidentified people.

Box 17 Image P419

Unidentified white family outside, some seated, some standing.

Box 17 Image P469

Print of deteriorated negative showing a crowd surrounding a train wreck.

Box 17 Image P473

Portrait of an unidentified white family standing outside on a porch.

Box 17 Image P476

Outside portrait of an unidentified white family.

Box 17 Image P478

Portrait of an unidentified white family outside a building.

Box 17 Image P479

Unidentified white father and son sitting on a rail fence.

Box 17 Image P480

Group portrait of unidentified white family taken outside with family dog.

Box 17 Image P481

Portrait of a large group of unidentified white children, possibly a school, taken outside in front of a building.

Box 17 Image P482

Portrait of an unidentified white family taken outside.

Box 17 Image P483

Unidentified young white man.

Box 17 Image P125

Unidentified young white woman.

Box 17 Image P126

Print of a negative containing 24 penny portraits of unidentified white people.

Box 17 Image P132

Print of nine portraits, mostly of white people, but also including a young black man.

Box 17 Image P149

Unidentified white woman.

Box 17 Image P156

Unidentified white girl and boy.

Box 17 Image P168

Unidentified white woman wearing glasses.

Box 17 Image P190

Unidentified white woman.

Box 17 Image P193

Unidentified white man and woman.

Box 17 Image P203

Unidentified white man. [Print missing]

Box 17 Image P213

Unidentified white woman.

Box 17 Image P242

Portrait of four unidentified white men.

Box 17 Image P266

Unidentified white man holding a hat.

Box 17 Image P267

Print of a negative containing two images. In each, an unidentified white woman is sitting with an unidentified white man, but the men in the two images are different.

Box 17 Image P271

Print of a negative containing twelve penny camera portraits and one group portrait. The penny camera images are mostly of two unidentified white women, and the group portrait is of three old men and two infants.

Box 17 Image P311

Unidentified white family.

Box 17 Image P314

Unidentified white woman.

Box 17 Image P324

Unidentified white woman seated on a log outside.

Box 17 Image P326

Unidentified young white woman.

Box 17 Image P352

Two unidentified white women.

Box 17 Image P369

Unidentified young white girl outside in a yard with chickens.

Box 17 Image P370

Two prints, one modern, of an unidentified white woman.

Box 17 Image P404 and 404A

Print of a negative containing two images of an unidentified white female toddler.

Box 17 Image P439

Two modern black and white prints, 8x10", no negatives, unidentified white men. One is of a young man with a pistol; the other is a slightly older young man with a mustache in a top hat. One of the men may be Hugh Mangum (his name appears in brackets on back of print).

Box 17

16x20 reproduction of N545, a mill (West Point on the Eno?)

Oversize Folder 1

Panoramic photo of school class, 1921

Oversize Folder 2

Artifacts Series

(1 box)

Consists of two boxes for dry plate negatives, both made by companies based in Missouri. One box, 3.5x4.5", is empty; the other still holds five unused 5x7" glass plate negatives wrapped in black paper.

Glass plate negatives boxes

Box 18

Historical Note

Hugh Leonard Mangum was born on June 3, 1877 in downtown Durham, N.C., the son of Presley J. Mangum, an early postmaster of Durham and furniture maker, and Sally Mangum. In 1891, the Mangums bought the McCown house at West Point, then a rural community centering on a water mill on the Eno River, and used the home as a summer residence. In 1893, when Hugh Mangum was 16 years old, the Mangum family moved out to the Eno River community permanently. By the time he was 16, Hugh Mangum had taught himself photography. He was also an adept painter in oils and watercolor and could play the mandolin, accordion, and piano. Mangum studied art at Salem College in Winston-Salem, N.C. and studied hypnotism on his own.

From this time on, Mangum led a rambling life throughout the cities and rural areas of the Southeast, photographing blacks and whites, children at play, workers in the field, and scenes around his home by the Eno River. He traveled by train on these picture-taking trips, returning often to his family's Durham, N.C. home on the Eno, perhaps when his money was exhausted. Through the course of his travels Mangum set up many temporary studios as well as three permanent ones located in the Virginia communities of Roanoke, Pulaski, and East Radford. Ordinary people would walk in wherever Mangum set up his studios and have their pictures made. Mangum also maintained a darkroom at his family's home on the Eno in a packhouse building which has been restored and converted into the Hugh Mangum Museum of Photography. Mangum printed many of his negatives in the packhouse darkroom having exposed the negatives elsewhere, usually on location in his permanent of temporary studios. Mangum used Black Meadow Branch, a small tributary of the Eno, as a water source for chemical mixing and for washing his prints.

Mangum’s original darkroom, a tobacco pack house on the Mangum farm at West Point on the Eno, was saved and restored by The Friends of West Point and opened in 1986 as The Hugh Mangum Museum of Photography. In addition to his darkroom, the museum contains Hugh Mangum’s traveling trunk, a selection of vintage prints, prints made from Mangum original negatives in the 1980s by photographer David Page, and period photography equipment.

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