MG-280. ARTHUR D. BRANSKY COLLECTION OF CHARLES ROSS PHOTOGRAPHS, 1905-1906.
Charles E. Ross, a professional photographer from Stroudsburg,
Pennsylvania, traveled with his wife, Linnie, through towns in eastern central Pennsylvania during the autumn of 1905 and the winter of 1906, photographing commercial sites. This collection of more than a thousand Ross glass plate negatives came into the possession Arthur D. Bransky of Breinigsville, Pennsylvania who in 1979 and 1980 sold to the Pennsylvania State Archives 227 contact prints over which he holds the copyright indefinitely. Categorized alphabetically by town, the photographs frequently show people conducting various business activities. Marked "Nov. 1906," a Pottsville scene includes an African American boy standing behind the bar of a saloon. An African American worker appears in a 1906 photograph of the Stony Point Granite Works in Temple, Pennsylvania and three 1906 pictures of Williamsport depict African Americans among their subjects: A print labeled "Barber Shop, Winter 1906" shows a black man dressed in a suit standing beside a shoeshine chair along with seven white barbers; a print labeled "Hotel Kitchen" shows three African American cooks; and a print labeled "Saloon" shows an African American man dressed in a suit and hat standing at a bar.