Charles Anderson Farrell Photographic Collection, 1937-1940, 1943-1944, 1977

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Summary

Creator:
Farrell, Charles Anderson, 1894-1977.
Abstract:

The collection of white photographer and businessman, Charles Anderson Farrell (1894-1977), consists of black-and-white negatives, black-and-white photographic prints, and slight manuscript material. The images relate to Farrell's photography work with three books published by the University of North Carolina Press: Stella Gentry Sharpe's Tobe (1939), about a young African American boy and his family; Bernice Kelly Harris's Dramatis Personae: Photographic Studies: Eastern Carolina Folk Plays (1940); and Aubrey Lee Brook's Walter Clark: Fighting Judge (1944), about the chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, 1903-1924. Also included are images of the first public performance of the Lost Colony outdoor drama in Manteo, N.C. on 4 July 1937, some of which include offensive scenes of white actors portraying Indigenous people of the Croatan tribe.

Extent:
800 items (3.0 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

Charles Anderson Farrell was a native of Yadkin County, N.C. He graduated from Wake Forest College, and after serving in the First World War, he returned there to teach English for a short time. Following his discharge from the army in 1919, Farrell began working for the Eastman Kodak Company in Mexico. Farrell married Anne McKaughan, and they had three children: Charles B. Farrell, Peter S. Farrell, and Roger H. Farrell.

In 1923, Farrell moved to Greensboro where he became the first professional photographer for the Greensboro Daily News. In the 1920s and 1930s, Farrell also operated a photography studio, camera store, and art supply house in downtown Greensboro. Highlights of Farrell's career included taking some of the first aerial photographs of North Carolina; taking exclusive aerial photographs of Reynolda House in Winston-Salem, N.C., following the fatal shooting of the heir to the Reynolds tobacco fortune Z. Smith Reynolds; and taking the pictures for Stella Gentry Sharpe's Tobe (1939), a portrait of a young African American boy and his family in the 1930s. Farrell died at the age of 83 in the Friends Home at Greensboro, N.C., in 1977.

Scope and content:

The collection includes 800 photographic images (negatives and prints) related to three works published by University of North Carolina Press, which Farrell worked on as a photographer. They include Stella Gentry Sharpe's Tobe (1939), Bernice Kelly Harris's "Dramatis Personae: Photographic Studies: Eastern Carolina Folk Plays" (1940), and Aubrey Lee Brook's Walter Clark: Fighting Judge,(1944). Also included are some images depicting the first public performance of the Lost Colony outdoor drama in Manteo, N.C. on 4 July 1937.

Acquisition information:

Received from Roger H. Farrell of Ithaca, N.Y., in June 1986. Addition received from University of North Carolina Greensboro University Archives in June 2015 (Acc. 102245).

Processing information:

Processed by: North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, 1997 and Patrick Cullom, August 2011

Encoded by: Patrick Cullom, August 2011

Updated by: Patrick Cullom, January 2020

Remediation by: Nancy Kaiser, July 2023 (added statement about "Croatan")

NOTE: In 2017, we began using "white" as an ethnic and racial identity for individual and families, in addition to "Black," "African American," "Jewish," and other familiar identity terms that we have used for decades in collection descriptions. We use this identity term so that whiteness is no longer the presumed default of the people represented in our collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

NOTE: "Croatan" (or "Croatoan") is an identity term that was used by the Indigenous peoples of the Hatteras and Roanoke Islands in the late 16th century. In subsequent centuries, the Indigenous peoples of Sampson, Craven, Robeson, Cumberland, Hoke and Scotland counties in North Carolina were thought to be the descendants of the Croatan Indians and were so called by North Carolina state officials; however, many tribal nations existed and exist now in this area who prefer to use their own identity terms, including the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina, and others.

In 2023, archivists examined the use of "Croatan" in Wilson Library archival collections and decided to leave this term in places where it refers to the Indigenous peoples of the Hatteras and Roanoke Islands, is part of a title, or is the proper name of a geographic feature or location. We have replaced "Croatan" with the appropriate identity term for materials that refer specifically to the groups noted above. When we are unable to make a determination, we use "Indigenous peoples." We recognize the complexity of this issue and welcome feedback on this decision at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Sensitive materials statement:

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to use:

For copyright and use restrictions contact the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these materials, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the Charles Anderson Farrell Photographic Collection (P0024), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu