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Creator
Moutoussamy-Ashe, Jeanne, 1951-
Call number
Sc MIRS Moutoussamy-Ashe 1986-34
Physical description
14 audio_recordings
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe Manuscript and Research audio collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library
Sponsor
An anonymous donor funded preliminary processing for this collection. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported a research library-wide grant for the digitization, and funded the Schomburg for the description and production of the finding aid as part of The Next Century of Black Studies Project.
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
Access to materials
Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.

Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe (1951-) is an American photographer, activist, and author of Viewfinders: Black Women Photographers (1986). The bulk of the collection consists of fourteen audio recordings, dating from 1979 to 1985, related to research for Viewfinders.

Biographical/historical information

Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe (1951-) is an American photographer and author of Viewfinders: Black Women Photographers (1986), which highlights previously unrecognized Black women pioneers in the field of photography. Moutoussamy-Ashe worked on the book with Deborah Willis, then curator of Prints and Photographs at the Schomburg Center. Her first book was Daufuskie Island: A Photographic Essay (1982).

Moutoussamy-Ashe's work has been shown at the Schomburg Center, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and at museums and galleries around the world. She is the author of five books, and her photographs have appeared in publications such as Life magazine, Essence magazine, and the New York Times.

Moutoussamy-Ashe married professional tennis player Arthur Ashe in 1977. In 1993, Ashe died of complications resulting from AIDS. He is believed to have contracted HIV from a blood transfusion he received during heart bypass surgery. Moutoussamy-Ashe directs the Arthur Ashe Endowment for the Defeat of AIDS. See the Related Materials note for more information about works by Moutoussamy-Ashe and the archives of Arthur Ashe.

Scope and arrangement

The collection consists of fourteen audio recordings dating from 1979 to 1985. The original format of the recordings is cassette, with many items containing two or more parts. Square brackets indicate unknown spelling.

The Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe Manuscript and Research audio collection is arranged in two series:

  • SERIES I: VIEWFINDERS BOOK DICTATION

    The series contains recordings of Moutoussamy-Ashe's dictation of a draft of Viewfinders to her assistant, Derilene McCloud. They are arranged alphabetically by subjects' last name. Subjects' last names appear in alphabetical order within the title.

    Moutoussamy-Ashe covers the biographies of photographers including Billie Davis, Dora Miller, Mary Flenoy, Vera Jackson, Eslanda Robeson, Frances B. Johnston, Louise Martin, Elizabeth Williams, Lucille Moore, and Wilhelmina Roberts, as well as the story of the Camera Girls.

  • SERIES II: INTERVIEWS

    The series contains interviews conducted by Moutoussamy-Ashe with photographers. They are arranged alphabetically. Multiple interviews often appear on one recording, and have been described separately. They are Vera Jackson, Louise Martin, Lucille Moore, Paul Robeson Jr. speaking about his mother, Eslanda Robeson, Hazel Shumate, Gladys Allen Whitlock, Elizabeth Williams, and Wilhelmina Wynn speaking about her mother, the photographer Wilhelmina Roberts.

    One recording contains interviews with two residents of Daufuskie Island, South Carolina. The interviews were conducted as part of research for Daufuskie Island: A Photographic Essay (1982).

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, 1986.

Processing information

Collection inventoried by Stacey Doyle Ference. Collection processed and described by Lyric Evans-Hunter, archivist; and Shola Lynch, curator. Finding aid published in 2024.

Separated material

See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe manuscript and research collection, Sc MG 343.

Related Material

See the Moving Image and Recorded Sound division, the Photographs and Prints division, and the Jean Blackwell Hutson (JBH) Research and Reference division for works by Moutoussamy-Ashe. The Schomburg also holds the archives of her late husband, Arthur Ashe.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Third Floor

Access to materials

Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.