- unitid
-
{"value"=>"186318", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"Sc Photo Tom Feelings Collection", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b23307260", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1910s-2000s", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1910/2009"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Tom Feelings photographs"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"6 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"2.33 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Tom Feelings (1933-2003) was an American children's book illustrator and author, cartoonist, teacher, and activist who sought to educate people of color through his artwork, books, and lectures. The Tom Feelings photographs largely chronicle Feelings' professional projects and formal events he attended during the 1990s and early 2000s. The collection also features many photographs of his mother's family from the 1910s."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Feelings, Tom", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>This biographical note was written in 2022 by Lauren Stark (edited by Nathan Evans in 2024).</p> <p>Tom Feelings was born on May 19, 1933 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. He began drawing at a young age, and attended the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in New York City from 1951 to 1953 (the institution was renamed School of Visual Arts in 1956). Feelings subsequently served in the United States Air Force from 1953 to 1957 as an illustrator for its Graphics Division in London, England. After his service, he resumed studying at the School of Visual Arts and created the comic strip, <span class=\"title\">Tommy Traveler in the World of Negro History</span>, which was published in the Harlem-based weekly newspaper, <span class=\"title\">The New York Age</span>. The strip was reprinted in a 1991 book to critical acclaim.</p> <p>From 1959 to 1964, Feelings worked as a freelance artist. He illustrated a comic pamphlet on voter registration for the NAACP titled <span class=\"title\">The Street Where You Live</span>, and his drawings accompanied feature articles in <span class=\"title\">Look</span> magazine and <span class=\"title\">The Reporter</span>. After a <span class=\"title\">Look</span> assignment in New Orleans inspired Feelings to shift his focus to children's books, he visited schools in Bedford-Stuyvesant, encouraging children to draw.</p> <p>In 1964, Feelings moved to Ghana and worked as an illustrator for <span class=\"title\">African Review Magazine</span> and taught illustration at the government's publishing house. Upon returning to the United States in 1966, he illustrated books of African stories, including <span class=\"title\">Bola and the Oba's Drummers</span> (1967), <span class=\"title\">The Tuesday Elephant</span> (1968), and <span class=\"title\">Black Folktales</span> (1969). In 1971, the government of Guyana invited Feelings to work as a consultant and teacher for its Ministry of Education; he trained young artists in textbook illustration and oversaw the creation of children's books. During this time, Feelings collaborated with his then-wife, Muriel Feelings, on three children's books: <span class=\"title\">Zamani Goes to Market</span> (1970), <span class=\"title\">Jambo Means Hello</span> (1971), and <span class=\"title\">Moja Means One: A Swahili Counting Book</span> (1974), the latter two of which were named Caldecott Honor Books. He also published his autobiography, <span class=\"title\">Black Pilgrimage</span>, in 1972.</p> <p>Feelings returned to the United States in 1974. He went on to write and/or illustrate several renowned books, including <span class=\"title\">Something on My Mind</span> (1978), for which he won the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration; <span class=\"title\">Daydreamers</span> (1981), which received a Coretta Scott King Honor Award; <span class=\"title\">Now Sheba Sings the Song</span> with Maya Angelou (1987); and <span class=\"title\">Soul Looks Back in Wonder</span> (1993) with thirteen different poets, which won the Coretta Scott King Award for Children's Literature. Feelings' best-known work is <span class=\"title\">The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo</span>, published in 1995 with an introduction by historian John Henrik Clarke. The book, a wordless narrative comprising sixty-four black-and-white paintings, took Feelings years to complete. It depicts the horrors of the forced journey of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean, and won Feelings his fourth Coretta Scott King Award.</p> <p>Feelings received many other awards and citations, including an honorary doctorate from the School of Visual Arts in 1996. A documentary based on his life, <span class=\"title\">Head and Heart</span>, was released in 1977 and won the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame awards for Best Overall Film and Best Documentary. Additionally, Feelings exhibited his work nationally and internationally throughout his career; published articles in the <span class=\"title\">Journal of African Children's and Youth Literature</span> and <span class=\"title\">The Horn Book Magazine</span>; contributed to publications such as <span class=\"title\">Junior Great Books</span> and <span class=\"title\">Talking with Artists</span>; and served on various boards and committees, including the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage and National Conference of Artists. His artwork is held in the permanent collections of the Studio Museum in Harlem and Medgar Evers College.</p> <p>In 1990, Feelings moved to South Carolina, where he was a professor of art at the University of South Carolina until 1996. He also served as a cultural specialist for the United States Information Service in 1998 in Thailand, where he led illustration workshops for students. Tom Feelings died of cancer in Mexico on August 25, 2003.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Tom Feelings photographs, dating from the 1910s to the 2000s, primarily document formal events Feelings attended during the 1990s and early 2000s in his capacity as a children's book illustrator, as well as professional projects he was engaged in during that time. The collection also features many photographs of his mother Anna Morris' family, including portraits from the 1910s. Occasional negatives accompany the photographs. The collection is arranged alphabetically into Events, Professional Work and Projects, and Personal.</p> <p>Photographs of events depict Feelings at book signings, talks, lectures, conferences, award ceremonies, and other formal functions. Most photographs are listed by event name, with some identified only by location. Unidentified photographs are ordered at the beginning of the alphabetical listing. Among the events chronicled here are talks and signings for <span class=\"title\">The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo</span>; the 1994 American Library Association Annual Conference; a 1994 UNESCO conference in Benin about the slave trade; and various art exhibitions, including one for <span class=\"title\">The Middle Passage</span> and another featuring Feelings with Maya Angelou.</p> <p>The Professional Work and Projects photographs depict Feelings drawing in his studio and teaching children and adults during the 1990s. There are several photographs of Feelings at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in 1953, and photographs of him on the set of <span class=\"title\">Head and Heart</span> in 1975. Roughly half of the photographs in this section are from Feelings' term as a cultural specialist in Thailand for the United States Information Service. Additionally, three pieces of unidentified artwork are held here.</p> <p>Feelings' personal photographs feature portraits of his mother's family, the Nashes, including numerous portraits of his mother, uncle, and grandmother from the 1910s. There are portraits of his mother with her schoolmates, and candid shots of various relatives from the 1940s. Most of these early photographs have descriptions written on the back that identify people and dates. Other family photographs depict Feelings with his children and extended family members from the 1980s and 1990s. The personal photographs also contain portraits of Feelings from throughout his life; there are photographs of him as an infant and during his United States Air Force service, in addition to portraits from the 1980s and 1990s used for promotional purposes. Also present are candid photographs of Feelings in informal settings; photographs of other people and friends, including one of Maya Angelou with Feelings during the early 1970s (in box 6); and photographs of his 1966 wedding with his first wife, Mary Hyde, and their subsequent honeymoon in London, England.</p>"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection is arranged alphabetically into the following groups: Events, Professional Work and Projects, and Personal.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Purchased from Kamili Feelings, executor of Tom Feelings' estate, in 2010.</p>"}
- separatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>Photographs transferred from the Tom Feelings papers in Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books, Schomburg Center.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by <span class=\"name\">Nathan Evans</span> in <span class=\"date\">2024</span>.</p>"}
- date_start
-
1910
- keydate
-
1910
- date_end
-
2009
- date_inclusive_start
-
1910
- date_inclusive_end
-
2009
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Tom Feelings photographs, Photographs and Prints Division. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library"}