C. M. Battey

He moved to Manhattan, New York City, and worked for six years in the Bradley Photographic Studio on Fifth Avenue, where he held the position of superintendent.

[2] As his fame grew, he also photographed white leaders such as President Calvin Coolidge and United States Supreme Court Chief Justice William Howard Taft.

[5] Battey taught courses in photography and at the same time documented the campus and its students and faculty, creating a unique record of black college life in the early twentieth century.

During his years at Tuskegee, Battey published a special edition of a print that visually linked four famous African-Americans with George Washington as a way of reclaiming black Americans' place in history.

[5] Originally entitled Five Negro Immortals, the photogravure was published in 1911 as Our Heroes of Destiny and included Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, and Paul Laurence Dunbar.

[4] In 1989, Battey's work was included in the exhibition "Black Photographers Bear Witness: 100 Years of Social Protest" at the Williams College Museum of Art.

Cornelius M. Battey c. 1917
W.E.B. Du Bois, photographed in 1918 by C.M. Battey.
Cover photo for 1920 issue of The Crisis , shot by C.M. Battey.