Long, Rucker, and Aiken family photographs and lithographs
Scope and Content
The collection documents the political, civic, educational, professional, family, and social life of members of the Long, Rucker, and Aiken families from 1859 through the 1970s. The images document three generations of the Long, Rucker, and Aiken families and visually chronicles their rise from slavery to social and political influence. It also provides visual documentation of African American life from Reconstruction to the late 20th century.
Dates
- 1859-1979, undated
Creator
- Lively Studio (Atlanta, Ga.) (Organization)
- Lomax, Alpha (Person)
- Kuhns Photographic Studio (Atlanta, Ga.) (Organization)
- Currier & Ives (Organization)
- Hyman, L. G. (Person)
- Henderson, Lucius S. (Person)
- Green, Reese (Person)
- Askew, Thomas E. (Person)
- Rucker family (Family)
- Long family (Family)
- Aiken family (Family)
- Tidwell & Lively (Atlanta, Ga.) (Organization)
- Little Studio (Atlanta, Ga.) (Organization)
- Scurlock, Addison N. (Person)
- Poole, Paul (Person)
- Princess Studio (Atlanta, Ga.) (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
This material is protected by copyright law. (Title 17, U.S. Code) Permission for use must be cleared through the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. Licensing agreement may be required.
Administrative/Biographical History
Jefferson Franklin Long (1836-1900), born in Alabama, became a successful merchant and tailor in Macon, Georgia. He married Lucinda Carhart and had several children; Mary Long (b. 1861); Annie Eunice (b. 1865); Jefferson Long (b. 1868); Lucy Long (b. 1870); Edward Long (b. 1871); and Charles Long (b. 1875). In 1871, Jefferson Long became the only African American elected to represent Georgia in the United States Congress during Reconstruction. He is buried in Macon, Georgia.
Annie Eunice Long (1865-1933), attended Scotia Seminary in Concord, North Carolina and married Henry Allan Rucker (1852-1924). Rucker was born to Edward Rucker and Betsey Golden in Washington, Georgia. He had been enslaved since birth by the King family of Athens, Georgia, who were in-laws of Atlanta journalist Henry Grady. Following the Civil War, Rucker opened a barber shop on Decatur Street in Atlanta; attended Atlanta University; served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, (1880); worked as a clerk in the internal revenue collector's office in Atlanta (1880-1885, 1889-1893); and was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for the District of Georgia (1896-1910), the only African American to receive this appointment. Rucker was active in the Niagara Movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Rucker and Annie Eunice Long had eight children: Henry, Jr. (b. 1892), Elizabeth (Bessie, b. 1891); Lucy Lorene (b. 1894); Jefferson (b. 1897); India Neddie (b. 1898); Hazel (b. 1900); Alice (b. 1902); and Ann L. (b. 1908). The family lived on Piedmont Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia. The family is buried in Oakland Cemetery.
Lucy Rucker (1894-1992) married Walter Henry "Chief" Aiken in 1920. Walter Aiken (1893-1965) was born in Dover, Delaware, attended Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, and served as football coach at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, Atlanta University (Lucy Rucker's alma mater), and Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia. Aiken was an architect and engineer and his many Atlanta projects include West Lake Court Apartments, the women's dormitory at Morris Brown College, homes in the Hunter Street- Washington Park subdivision, Simpson Road subdivision, and the Waluhaje Hotel and Apartments.
Bessie Rucker (1890-1931) attended Fisk University and married John Wesley Davis (b. 1888), later president of West Virginia State College. They had two daughters, Constance and Dorothy Long, known as "Dit" and "Dot."
Ann L. Rucker (1907-1977) attended Atlanta University and Hampton Institute and served as librarian at Fisk University and the Carnegie Library in Atlanta, Georgia. She married Charles W. Anderson, Jr., of Louisville, Kentucky.
Extent
2386 image(s) (2375 photographs; 11 lithographs)
Language
English
System of Arrangement
This collection is divided into four series: 1. Family photographs and lithographs; 2. Walter Aiken photographs; 3. Friends and associates; and 4. African American photographers and hereunder alphabetically according to titles supplied by staff.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift, 1980
Description Control
This collection was processed in 2014.
- African American businesspeople -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- African American children -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- African American families -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- African American men -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- African American neighborhoods -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- African American photographers
- African American politicians -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- African American soldiers
- African American universities and colleges
- African American women -- Georgia -- Atlanta
- African Americans -- 1900-1910
- African Americans -- 1910-1920
- African Americans -- 1920-1930
- African Americans -- 1930-1940
- African Americans -- 1940-1950
- African Americans -- 1950-1960
- African Americans -- Clothing -- Georgia
- African Americans -- Housing
- Aiken family
- Aiken, Lucy Rucker
- Aiken, Walter Henry, 1893-1965
- Alexander, Wellington, Jr., Rev.
- Amos, Moses, Dr.
- Anderson, Ann Rucker
- Anderson, Charles W., Jr.
- Bedou, A. P.
- Butler Street YMCA (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Butler, Henry Rutherford, Dr.
- Butler, Selena Sloan
- Columbians (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Crogman, William H., Dr.
- Davis, Bessie Rucker
- Davis, Griffith
- Davis, John Wesley
- Dixie Hills (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Fair Street (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Fairview (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Faulkner, William, Rev.
- First Street (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Gaines, Mary
- Gaines, Wesley John, Rev.
- Gate City Drug Store (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Hampton Institute
- Harper, Charles L., Dr.
- Harper, Katryn
- Harper, Laurence, Jr.
- Harper, Laurence, Sr.
- Harper, Neddie Rucker
- Hatcher, Thurston
- Joint Civilian Organization Conference (Fort Benning, Ga.)
- Lawton Street (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Long family
- Long, Jefferson Franklin, 1836-1901
- Long, Lucinda Carhart
- Matthews, William B.
- Mollison, Irving C., Judge
- Moral Re-armament Assembly (Georgia : 1957-1958)
- Morehouse College (Atlanta, Ga.)
- National Association of Real Estate Brokers
- National Builders Association
- National Housewives League
- National Negro Business League (U.S.)
- Omega Psi Phi Fraternity
- Partee, Fannie H.
- Pitts, India
- Rosser Street (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Rucker family
- Rucker, Annie Eunice Long, 1865-1933
- Rucker, Hazel
- Rucker, Henry Allen, 1852-1924
- Rucker, Henry, Jr.
- Rucker, Nancy Ann
- Simpson Road (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Tuskegee Institute
- United States. Army. 371st Infantry
- Waluhaje Hotel & Apartments (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Washington Park (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Welch, Constance Davis
- West Lake Court Apartments (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Whitaker Circle (Atlanta, Ga.)
- White supremacy movements -- Georgia
- White, George H.
- White, Madeline
- White, Walter Francis
- Williams, Asbury S.
- Title
- Long, Rucker, and Aiken family photographs and lithographs
- Author
- Carla Ledgerwood
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is written in English.
Repository Details
Part of the Kenan Research Center at Atlanta History Center Repository