Scope and arrangement
The Cecil Layne photographs date from 1943 to 2005 (bulk dates 1948-1960) and consist almost entirely of original black-and-white photographic negatives created by Layne in the course of his work as a professional photographer. A small quantity of photographic prints and files of related documents are also present. The collection is arranged into three series: Prints, Negatives, and Files
In his commercial work, Layne photographed many Black entertainers, community members, fraternities and clubs, business owners, parties, weddings, parades, funerals, storefronts, and buildings. In his photojournalism, Layne covered activities of the NAACP closely, documented radio station WLIB, frequently shot events at the Harlem YWCA and was generally a familiar presence around Harlem, catching local fires, car crashes, crime, sports, current events, and everyday life.
Prominent individuals appearing in the Cecil Layne photographs include Ralph Abernathy, Marian Anderson, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Harry Belafonte, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ralph Bunche, Cab Calloway, Roy Campanella, Lisle Carter, Evelyn Cunningham, Sammy Davis, Jr., Billy Eckstein, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Duke Ellington, Ralph Ellison, Althea Gibson, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, W.C. Handy, Earl Hines, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Hubert Humphrey, Vincent Impellitteri, Eartha Kitt, Buddy Johnson, Louis Jordan, Fiorello La Guardia, Joe Louis, Thurgood Marshall, Johnny Mathis, Willie Mays, Robert McFerrin, Claudia McNeil, Constance Motley, Rose Murphy, Kwame Nkrumah, Satchel Paige, Gordon Parks, Adam Clayton Powell, Paul Robeson, Sugar Ray Robinson, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bayard Rustin, Haile Selassie, Adlai Stevenson, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Ethel Waters, John Wayne, Roy Wilkens, and Louis T. Wright.
The Cecil Layne photographs are arranged in three series:
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1943-1972
Smaller Formats contain 4x5 inch-, 120mm- and 35mm- sized acetate and polyester negatives. Larger Formats mostly contain 5x7 inch-sized polyester negatives. Selections include negatives of all sizes whose images were apparently chosen by clients or selected for publication and kept separate from the rest of the collection.
Negatives are housed in paper negative sleeves, frequently containing numerous strips or small groups of separate negative frames from the same photo session. The collection holds approximately 4,030 such negative sleeves, most containing numerous images. No consistent identification scheme is present, but most sleeves do include very short descriptions and dates, which have been retained together with the sleeved negatives. Researchers may wish to consult the handwritten index lists found in Series III for clues as to the content of the negatives in this series.
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1940s-1959
This series contains all the prints in the collection. The majority of negatives in the collection never had accompanying positive images produced from them. The Proof Prints and Unfixed Proof Prints contain those surviving few that were produced.
The Unfixed Proof Prints contain the small quantity of commercial portrait proofs that, though intentionally left minimally fixed in the development process in order to render them temporary, still show a readable, if deteriorated, image.
The Selections prints are the only enlarged photographic prints in the collection. All Selections prints measure 8x10 inches. Some were printed by Cecil Layne and bear his studio's credit stamp and others were printed posthumously around 1998. Selections prints include a file of Harlem street scenes; portraits of Bayard Rustin; and Eartha Kitt and Harry Belafonte each performing at the Harlem YMCA.
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1940s-2005
Series III includes contact sheets corresponding to some of the Selections negatives and prints; three color 35mm slides from the 1950s; photocopies of handwritten index lists; a few files of empty original negative sleeves; and a file of notes pertaining to prints made posthumously. Researchers may wish to consult index lists to get an idea of who and what may be contained in this collection. These lists are not complete and they do not always mirror the very rough alphabetical order of the negatives in the collection.