Name/Title
Beshears Family Group Photos, unidentified and undated.Entry/Object ID
P2018.8.56Description
Beshears Family Photos, unidentified and undated. Most likely photos of family members of Dr. Rufus Preston Beshears, a local black dentist. 5 photos.
A = "Royalty B.B. Club" Photo of two young black teen couples, the boys in suits and the girls in white blouses each clutching a rose. Sepia, 4" x 6" with corners cut on diagonal. Poor condition, cracked down vertical center. c. 1920
B = Family Group taken outside, perhaps at a park with play equipment behind. 24 women, 2 men and 2 children, 3 rows with first row seated. Women are wearing high-collar white bodices and long skirts. b/w. *8½" x 6½" on black cardboard mat. Poor condition. Dirty, Mat is fragile, Most of left side & top corner missing, Chunks missing from right side.
C = Young Blacks Group Photo, c. 1910. 7 young women and 4 young men. All women except one are seated on front row, wearing white full length dresses with high collars and long sleeves. The men are in dark suits. Rufus Beshears may be one of the young men, as his name is handwritten barely visible on back. b/w. 7" x 9", white over-mat, 11" x 14". Poor condition, mat is dirty, mildewed.
D = Group photo of 18 black men in suits, all holding straw hats. Rufus Beshears is most likely the tallest man on back row in center. Photo by Santee, KC, MO, 1916. Sepia, *' x 10", on brown cardboard mat, 11¾" x 14" Poor Condition. fading, dirty, corners of mat off.
E = Group of white persons making presentation of radio to an older black man as his "wife" looks on. unidentified. Man is not Beshears. b/w. 5" x 7" in cardboard folio.Made/Created
Studio
UnknownDate made
1910Lexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Secondary Object Term
Print, PhotographicNomenclature Primary Object Term
PhotographNomenclature Sub-Class
Graphic DocumentsNomenclature Class
Documentary ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsSearch Terms
Beshears Family, Black History in St. JosephDimensions
Dimension Notes
Printsize: VariousRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Rufus P. BeshearsProvenance
Notes
Items found in basement of Brookdale East Apt. Complex, the first public housing project in St. Joseph, established through the efforts of activist, Kelsey Beshears. Her son, Jerry Cooper, lived in the complex even after Kelsey's death. Donated by member of local NAACP.
