HANDLED WITH CARE
Ebony saves, shares archive of photos rich with history
One picture captures a moment. More than 4 million photographs document a movement that changed the course of America.
In November, Ebony magazine debuted the Ebony Collection, an online archive of 2,000 images for sale by the storied publisher. The pictures were handpicked by Linda Johnson Rice, chairman of Johnson Publishing. Johnson Rice is the 54-year-old daughter of the late Johnson Publishing founders John H. and Eunice W. Johnson. The photos date back to 1942, even before Ebony was started in 1945.
“To go through these files is like stepping back in time and putting yourself inside a piece of history,” Johnson Rice said during a private tour of the archives. “Ebony followed Nat King Cole and his wife [Marie Ellington] on their [1948] honeymoon. From the minute they got on their plane to the minute they got off their plane in Acapulco. You can’t do that now. (Cole recounts in the story, “Down at the beach the next morning I gave Marie a piggy-back ride and then lounged around watching the waves.”)
“Then there are pictures of Martin Luther King with his family. Downtime. Not preaching, not protesting, not marching, but playing with his kids.”
Like sleeping giants, the photos rest in manila folders, filed alphabetically by subject in a chilly climate controlled space.
The archive space, not open to the public, was custom built for Johnson Publishing for its new offices atop the Borg-Warner building across the street from the Art Institute of Chicago. Markers lead into rows of history: “Dick Gregory to Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson.”
“It is the first time we’ve opened this archive,” Johnson Rice said. “This has been a very cherished and private archive.”
The archives also include slides and oversized prints kept in chemically treated boxes.
“Those oversized prints are probably the oldest pieces we have,” Johnson Rice said as she put on a pair of white gloves to handle the pictures. “What’s most exciting is that all the people we have chronicled in Ebony since 1945 are in here. One of my favorite photographs in the entire collection is of Martin Luther King. He is wearing a tuxedo vest. He is reading the International Herald-Tribune and he’s about to accept his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. This shows him in a relaxed moment, getting ready to put on his jacket and walk out and accept his peace prize. It is an amazing photo.”
A majestic sepia-toned image of Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks swinging away at home plate hangs in the office hallway at Johnson Publishing. Banks signed the portrait to Gregory Simms, then associate editor of Jet, and dated it: Jan. 20, 1977.
“Ebony was so important to me,” Banks said last week. “It made a difference with black America. I spent a lot of time with John Johnson. ... I was on the cover of Jet. I subscribed to Ebony and Jet. I went to their modeling shows.
“The Ebony offices were a special place for me in Chicago,” Banks said.