Snapshots of the Past

Negro church - St. Augustine Catholic Church, Washington, D.C. – Historic Reproduction

Negro church - St. Augustine Catholic Church, Washington, D.C., [1899?] — historic photograph
Negro church - St. Augustine Catholic Church, Washington, D.C., [1899?]. Historic photograph from the Washington DC collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This historic photograph of Negro church - St. Augustine Catholic Church, Washington, D.C. brings a moment of history to your wall. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.

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Negro church - St. Augustine Catholic Church, Washington, D.C.

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St. Augustine Catholic Church was one of the principal houses of worship for Black Catholics in Washington, a community that had long worshiped in a city where Catholic parishes were often segregated by race. This photograph, probably made around 1899, shows the church as a visible sign of that congregation's institutional life. The print is reported to have been shown in the American Negro exhibit at the Paris Exposition of 1900, organized by W. E. B. Du Bois and his colleagues to present African American life through photographs, statistics and charts. Within that setting, images of churches like this one were meant to show education, property and community organization, a counterpoint to the stereotypes common in popular imagery of the period.

Created / published[1899?]
Medium1 photographic print.
GenrePhotographic prints 1890-1900.
SubjectsTitle and other information transcribed from caption card. Reportedly displayed as part of the American Negro exhibit at the Paris Exposition of 1900. Caption card tracings: DC, Wash. -- Churches; African Americans -- Religion; Churches -- DC, Wash.; Shelf.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,376 × 1,536 px · prints to 5 × 5 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-128202

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