About

1 inch; photographic.
32 gelatin silver prints

Collection Description

Herbert Provost, a professional photographer, was born December 27, 1921 in Dayton, Texas. The son of Delphina and Paul Provost, he was raised in Dayton and Houston and attended high school in Houston. Provost attended Texas Southern University in 1940 to 1944, during which time he studied under A. C. Teal at the Teal School of Photography in Houston, Texas.

Provost served in the U. S. Navy during World War II from 1944 – 1945 and was discharged in 1946. That year he enrolled in an 18-month course at the Progressive School of Professional Photographers in New Haven, Connecticut to continue his education in photography. Returning to Houston in 1947, Provost worked at the Gittings and Lawless studio for a year and then in 1949 opened his own studio. With partners he operated under the name the Provost Trio and later, with his son, as Provost and Associates. Herbert Provost died January 4, 1998.

During his career he photographed the Houston African American community, producing standard portraiture, class photographs, and during the civil rights era, official photographs for the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for use in legal cases.

Herbert Provost was married to Georgia Doyle in 1946. An oral history with Provost and examples of his work appear in Portraits of Community: African American Photography in Texas (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1996).

The collection consists of selected examples of Provost's commercial photography, made between 1958 and 1978, documenting Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas, and portraiture.

Arrangement: prints arranged in series by subject.

Copyright and permissions: Prints for study and research only. Permission to reproduce required from TAAP Archive.

Source: Herbert Provost