Spotlighting the artistic contributions of Black Angelenos across genres

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This year’s national Black History Month focus is “African Americans and the Arts.” A discussion of this subject would be incomplete without highlighting photographs collected by Miriam Matthews (1905-2003), California’s first Black librarian and a dedicated patron of African American artists in the 20th century.

Matthews' efforts in 1929 to officially recognize the contributions of Black life in Los Angeles lead to the dedication of a recognized week in the City – this week would eventually expand to what is now the national month-long Black History Month.

Matthews grew up in Los Angeles and overcame race-based obstacles to become a librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library, and over a 30 year span, she managed several LAPL locations. Early in her career, while working at the now closed Helen Hunt Jackson branch in historic South Central Los Angeles, Matthews discovered a small collection of books related to Black life. This would be the start of Matthew’s substantial research collection documenting the contributions of African Americans to California history and culture.

Over the years, she amassed a collection of approximately 4,600 black-and-white photographs now stewarded by UCLA Library Special Collections. The Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection presents a depiction of the lives of African Americans in Los Angeles and California from the late 18th century to the 1980s. The collection spans many different facets of life, some reflective of the collector’s interests, including the arts.

Throughout her career as a librarian, Matthews uplifted the contribution of Black artists in L.A. and was instrumental in the successful careers of some of her living patrons. This Black History Month, UCLA Library reflects on the legacy of African American artists in Los Angeles and the state across genres and time, as documented through Matthews’s collection.

Conference with mural artists at the home office of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company Hale Woodruff third from left; Miriam Matthews third from right, Los Angeles, 1948, Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections

William Grant Still | Music

William Grant Still working on a composition in his home, Los Angeles, 1960-1970, Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections

William Grant Still (1895-1978) was an American composer of nearly 200 works, including symphonies, operas, ballets, choral works, art songs, chamber music and solo works.

Still moved to Los Angeles mid-career after receiving his first Guggenheim Fellowship. Two years later, he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl and became the first African American to conduct a major American orchestra in a performance of original works. Still received numerous awards, fellowships, honorary degrees and many other accolades throughout his life and posthumously.

Still is featured in the UCLA Music Library exhibition, My Life in the Sunshine: Sampling the Soundscape of Black Los Angeles. The show, which celebrates the innovation and diversity of L.A.'s Black musical communities, is on view now through December 20 at Schoenberg Hall, just outside the Music Library entrance.

William Grant Still (middle left) posing with other African American composers circa 1930, Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections

Hale Woodruff | Painting

Portrait of Hale Woodruff, circa 1930-1948, Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections

Hale Woodruff (1900-1980) was an American painter known for his murals, paintings and block prints and was known as one of the leading African American artists of the Depression Era. In 1936, Woodruff traveled to Mexico to study mural painting under Diego Rivera, and upon his return, was commissioned to paint several murals around the country. One mural was “The Negro in California History- Settlement and Development,” commissioned by the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company in Los Angeles in 1949. Librarian Miriam Matthews was on the board of the research committee of the mural and was instrumental in its creation. Hale Woodruff enjoyed a successful career with many commissions, teaching positions, solo exhibitions and honors continuing long after his retirement in 1968.

Mural titled "The Negro in California History–Settlement and Development," by Hale Woodruff, at the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building, Los Angeles, circa 1949, Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections

Alice Taylor Gafford | Painting

Portrait of Alice Taylor Gafford, circa 1960, Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections

Alice Taylor Gafford (1886-1981) was a nurse, teacher, writer and painter. She began her career as a nurse in the Midwest, but in 1922 moved to Los Angeles to study at the Otis Art Institute before embarking on her career as an artist circa 1935. Her notable works are still life and landscape scenes. In 1951–at sixty-five years old–she earned a teaching certificate at UCLA to teach art for an adult education program. She was involved in founding the Los Angeles Negro Art Association, of which Miriam Matthews was an active member, and the Eleven Associated Artists Gallery (later Art West Association) in downtown Los Angeles. Her oil paintings were part of a “Negro History Week” exhibit at Doheny Library in 1953. She was called by some "the dean of black artists in Los Angeles" in recognition of her community leadership.

Gafford with an original still life painting, circa 1960, Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections

Beulah Ecton Woodard | Sculpture

Portrait of Beulah Woodard with six sculptures she made, circa 1935-1955, Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections

Beulah Ecton Woodard (1895-1955) was a sculptor based in Los Angeles specializing in African subjects. She inherited her love of art from her grandfather, who was a sculptor, and her formerly enslaved grandmother, who was an expert weaver and fabric dyer. After developing a self-taught art and sculpture practice as an adult, Woodard converted part of her home into an art studio. Miriam Matthews discovered Woodard’s sculpture work in 1935 and arranged for her to have exhibits at the Vernon Branch Library and the Los Angeles Central Library. Woodard became the first African American artist to have a solo exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in 1937. Woodard was an active member of her community and in 1937 helped found the Negro Art Association in Los Angeles and the Eleven Associated Artist Gallery in 1950 to uplift talented young Black artists.

Clay bust of a woman by Beulah Woodard, modeled by Maudelle Bass Weston, circa 1935-1955, Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections

Carmen De Lavallade | Dance

Carmen De Lavallade and a male dancer, circa 1960, Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections

Carmen De Lavallade (1931-) is an American dancer, choreographer and actress who has enjoyed a highly distinguished career of more than six decades in dance and the arts. Born in Los Angeles, she was Inspired by her cousin– famed African American ballet dancer Janet Collins–to begin studying ballet at the age of 14. She was awarded a scholarship to study dance with Lester Horton after graduating from Thomas Jefferson High School at the age of 16. She danced as a lead at Lester Horton Dance Theater from 1949 until she moved to New York City in 1954 to work with Alvin Ailey. Throughout her career, De Lavallade studied various art forms, including painting, acting, music, set design and costuming, as well as ballet and other styles of modern and ethnic dance. De Lavallade appeared in films including Carmen Jones (1955) and Broadway musicals including “House of Flowers” (1954). She went on to have leading roles in numerous ballets, operas, plays and other productions. De Lavallade was awarded the Black History Month Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2017. De Lavallade, aged 92, is still active in her community and recently made a public appearance to receive the Richmond Ballet Lifetime Achievement Award.

Poster for the dance performance season of the Back Bay Theatre with a photograph of Carmen De Lavallade, 1967, Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections