Selections from The Appalachian Photographs of Doris Ulmann

These photographs are selections from the Ulmann archives at Berea College, Berea, Kentucky. They were taken during the 1920’s and 1930’s by Miss Doris Ulmann, a remarkable lady from New York’s Park Avenue who traveled the back roads and paths of Appalachia with a bulky glassplate view camera, a chauffeur, and a full complement of designer dresses. The wonder is that she bridged so readily the gap between her world and theirs and left us with such straightforward portraits. There is, in these photographs, no condescension for the harshness of her subjects’ lives, but rather an appreciation of mountain people