Geleve Grice Photograph Collection

Collection

Identifier: MC 1463

Staff Only
Select files to request

Scope and Contents

The Geleve Grice Photograph Collection primarily consists of photographic prints, slides, and negatives that were made by Geleve Grice during his life and career as a photographer. In bulk, Grice frequently photographed weddings, graduations, and funerals, but in addition to that Grice photographed the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, day-to-day life in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and also his own vacations. Grice's photographs of a Pine Bluff nightclub, PJ's, comprise a large portion of the collection as well. Finally Grice has photographs of important Black figures, particularly during visits to Pine Bluff, including Muhammad Ali, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Dionne Warwick, Maya Angelou, Wiley Branton, Dr. Edith Irby Jones, Ida Rowland Bellegard, Dr. Raymond Miller, Dr. Lawrence A. Davis, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Silas Hunt. Also included is a folder of photographic prints from the Second World War that Grice does not appear to have taken.

In addition to photographs and negatives, the collection also includes some correspondence and financial records, as well as yearbooks from Arkansas AM and N and materials related to 1998 and 2003 exhibitions of Grice's work.

Dates

1942-2005

Creator

Grice, Geleve, 1922- (Person)

Access Information

Please call (479) 575-8444 or email specoll@uark.edu at least two weeks in advance of your arrival to ensure availability of the materials.

Conditions Governing Use

Negatives in Box 44 have been contaminated by inactive mold; researchers are encouraged to wear PPE when accessing materials in this box.

No Use Restrictions Apply.

No Interlibrary Loan.

Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17).

Biographical / Historical

Born in the rural Jefferson County community of Tamo, Arkansas on January 16, 1922, Geleve Grice was one of the most prolific Black photographers in Arkansas' history. After spending his teenage years in Little Rock, attending and graduating from Dunbar High School, Grice served in the United States Navy during World War Two. After the war Grice attended and graduated from Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical, and Normal College in Pine Bluff; this institution is now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. While studying at Arkansas AM and N, Grice first established a relationship with the school as a campus photographer.

Already operating a photography studio in Pine Bluff when he graduated in 1950, Geleve Grice would spent the rest of his life documenting daily life in southeastern Arkansas, particularly within its Black community. Favored subjects of his included weddings, school graduations, funerals, and Black life in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and its surrounding areas. Grice's photographic work would be the subject of a 1998 exhibition in Pine Bluff, a 2003 exhibition in Little Rock, and a 2003 book written by Robert Cochran. Grice passed away on August 17, 2004.

Extent

41.521 Linear Feet (44 Boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Photographic prints, negatives, correspondence, and some other textual documents created by Geleve Grice, a Black photographer from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and primarily depicting Black life in Arkansas, particularly around Pine Bluff, Little Rock, and Fayetteville.

Arrangement

The Geleve Grice Photograph Collection is arranged in 44 boxes by original order. When the collection was accessioned, the bulk of the materials were contained in photograph and negative envelopes, with the envelopes being placed vertically in their boxes. It is described at the folder level, with folder titles being reused and directly transcribed from photograph and negative envelopes when possible. Materials in Box 44 were separated from other folders in the collection as part of preservation methods to address inert/inactive mold on some materials.

Acquisition Information

The Geleve Grice Photograph Collection was donated to the University of Arkansas by James B. Blair of Springdale, Arkansas on May 11, 2005. Blair had previously purchased the collection from Geleve Grice on April 29, 2002 with the formal understanding that it was to be given to the Special Collections Division of the University of Arkansas.

Physical Description

Negatives in the Geleve Grice Photograph Collection are of made of acetate base films in a variety of sizes and formats.

Processing Information

Processed by Adam Heien, completed in March 2024. Additional assistance was provided by Katrina Windon, Juliette Robinson, Kath Rees, Tyler Schroeder, and Aileen Polanski.

Folders with titles formatted Box, "descriptive text," "descriptive text" are described as such in order to convey that the materials in folders with identical box titles were originally in separate envelopes, but in the same small box in the larger box.

Original envelope titles have been transcribed as-is, which may include spelling errors and variations, as well as abbreviations. Researchers searching for the name of a specific individual, place, or event are encouraged to search multiple spellings of the name or to browse the full folder list.

In reflection of the fact that access had been provided to researchers via an inventory that had been completed before processing, there is a document in the accession file that serves as a conversion chart between the boxes numbers as accessioned and then inventoried and the current boxes for the collection.