Thousands of photographs from 1897 to 1978 that document Black people in the Rubber City will be digitized at the University of Akron. 

The work will digitize the photographs of Horace and Evelyn Stewart, a husband and wife who owned Stewart’s Photo Studio at 11 1/2 N. Howard St. The Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives: Amplifying Unheard Voices grant was awarded to the university by The Council of Library and Information Resources (CLIR).  

“It’s one of the largest photographic collections we have in the archives, and the largest we have here that documents the local Black community,” said Victor Fleischer, head archivist for the Archives and Special Collections department. 

A group of children stand outside an NAACP Freedom Bus.
A group of children stand outside an NAACP Freedom Bus that provided free rides to Black people in Akron to register to vote. The photo is part of a collection that spans 40 years of Black life in Akron documented by Horace and Evelyn Stewart, a husband and wife who owned Stewart’s Photo Studio at 11 1/2 N. Howard St. The collection, housed at the University of Akron’s Archives and Special Collections department is to be digitized by the University of Akron using grant money from The Council of Library and Information Resources. (Photographs used with permission from the Horace and Evelyn Stewart Photographs at The University of Akron Archives and Special Collections)

The $190,000 grant was made available through the Mellon Foundation and dispersed to the university in January. The university’s Archives and Special Collections department has already shipped the collection of photo negatives to the vendor, who will process and digitize them. Fleischer expects the first batch back within a couple of months. 

“It’s very significant. We’re all very excited about it,” Fleischer said. “We’ve been talking about it for years and just had to find the right grant.”

The entire collection will be available to the public online, and Fleischer hopes it will help enhance civic pride and historical understanding of Akron’s Black communities — especially during Akron’s bicentennial year. The Stewarts’ photo collection includes studio portraits, local music groups, church events, political and civil rights marches. 

In addition to running a professional photo studio, the Stewarts were dedicated to the Akron community. Stewart Elementary is named after Horace, a well-known local advocate who sat on numerous boards. He was recognized locally as an expert on the area’s Black history. 

Dorothy Jackson, who eventually became a deputy mayor for the City of Akron
Dorothy Jackson, who eventually became a deputy mayor for the City of Akron, accepts a “Woman of the Year” award in 1966 from the Glamourettes Beautician’s Club. The photo is part of a collection that spans 40 years of Black life in Akron documented by Horace and Evelyn Stewart, a husband and wife who owned Stewart’s Photo Studio at 11 1/2 N. Howard St. The collection, housed at the University of Akron’s Archives and Special Collections department is to be digitized by the University of Akron using grant money from The Council of Library and Information Resources. (Photographs used with permission from the Horace and Evelyn Stewart Photographs at The University of Akron Archives and Special Collections)

In an interview with the Akron Beacon Journal before her death in 1992, Evelyn Stewart McNeil said: “We took pictures of anything of interest, everything that was happening in the black community, including marches and picketing. No one else was doing it. It was our contribution to the city, to just let people know what was going on.” 

Now, Fleischer said, the Stewarts’ expansive work will finally be digitized and available to the public. It’s a fitting honor to a nearly forgotten legacy, he said. 

“Akron’s just got a rich history, and it’s good to see some of the visual history be preserved, particularly of the Black community that isn’t always captured,” Fleischer said. 

A school band is shown in a photo
A school band is shown in a photo that is part of a collection that spans 40 years of Black life in Akron documented by Horace and Evelyn Stewart, a husband and wife who owned Stewart’s Photo Studio at 11 1/2 N. Howard St. The collection, housed at the University of Akron’s Archives and Special Collections department is to be digitized by the University of Akron using grant money from The Council of Library and Information Resources. (Photographs used with permission from the Horace and Evelyn Stewart Photographs at The University of Akron Archives and Special Collections)

Education Reporter
Andrew is a native son of Northeast Ohio who previously worked at the Akron Beacon Journal, News 5 Cleveland, and the Columbus Dispatch before leaving to work in national news with the Investigative Unit at Fox News. A graduate of Kent State University and a current resident of Firestone Park, he returns to his home city of Akron ready to sink into the education beat and provide Akronites with the local reporting they deserve.