About

1/4 inch, photographic.
21 gelatin silver prints

Collection Description

Robert Whitby, a photographer and public-school teacher, was born in 1914 in Beeville, Texas and grew up in Austin, Texas. He attended L. C. Anderson High School and graduated from Huston-Tillotson College in Austin, Texas. After service in the Navy in World War II, Whitby taught Spanish and French at L. C. Anderson High School during the 1960s and 1970s.

The source of Robert Whitby's knowledge of photography is unknown, but he was actively photographing in Austin by the mid-1940s. During his adult life, Whitby served as one of several photographers for the African American community in Austin, serving as mentor for fellow photographer Morris Crawford, Sr. When Whitby became ill and could no longer photograph, his former student, Morris Crawford, Sr., assumed Whitby's photography clients. Robert Whitby died in Austin in 1976.

Whitby's photographic subjects included portraiture, local schools and student portraits, family, and friends. A number of images document African American residences and businesses in Austin, as well as campus buildings of Huston-Tillotson College in Austin and J. C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. Examples of Whitby’s work appear in Portraits of Community: African American Photography in Texas (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1996).

Arrangement: prints arranged by subject.

Copyright and permissions: Prints for research and study only. Permission to reproduce required from photographer's family.

Source: Mrs. Arah Whitby