Children's Fashion Show, ca. 1958

Series VI. Photographs and Videos document Freedom House programs and events. Prior to the 1970s, photographs are black and white and often taken by professional photographers (including Irene Shwachman), who were hired by Freedom House, the press, or the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA).  Beginning in the 1980s, activities are less thoroughly documented.  Those activities that are documented are documented by color snapshots and Polaroids.  Researchers should note that personal photographs of Muriel and Otto Snowden are in M17 Muriel S. and Otto P. Snowden Papers.   Photographs are arranged topically and document the programs and activities in Series I - IV.  Topics include the Freedom House building and reconstruction (including the fire of 1960); portraits of individuals (Snowdens; Board members; community members such as Melnea Cass; program speakers and organizers including Jacqueline Kennedy; politicians including Edward Brooke, Edward Kennedy, Gov. Frank Sargent, and Adlai Stevenson); Board of Directors and annual meetings; program events, and anniversary celebrations and award ceremonies (including receptions for Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy); Play School and children's groups, youth groups, and educational programs; fund-raising events (Ebony Fashion Fair and celebrity performers including Marion Anderson, Nina Simone, Cab Calloway, and Nancy Wilson); events of outside organizations held at Freedom House; and urban renewal meetings, and Boston Redevelopment Authority building and renovation projects that involved Freedom House.  In addition, a series of property photographs taken by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) prior to demolition renovation in the Roxbury, Huntington Avenue, South End, and Fenway areas were transferred to Freedom House by a staff member who interfiled these with the Freedom House photographs.  Photographs taken by Irene Shwachman and the Boston Redevelopment Authority have reproduction restrictions.  For further information, consult the University Archivist (the Irene Shwachman Archive is located at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona; the Boston Redevelopment Authority archives is located at the Boston City Archives in Reedville, Massachusetts). Video topics include 1974 history of Freedom House by Karl Nurse, the Ralph Bunche Oratorical Contest, and Goldenaires events.