Robert H. McNeill facts for kids

Robert H. McNeill (December 19, 1917 – May 27, 2005) was an American photographer. He was famous for taking pictures of African-American life. In the 1930s and 1940s, he photographed many important events in Washington, D.C.'s Black community.

Early Life and Learning

Robert H. McNeill was born in Washington, D.C.. His father, William C. McNeill, was a doctor and teacher. His mother, Mary A. McNeill, was a school teacher and part of the Board of Education. Robert found his love for photography in high school at Dunbar High School. This school helped many Black artists and thinkers grow in the early 1900s.

Photography Career

Starting Out

When Robert was 18, he was a student at Howard University in Washington. He took a picture of the 1936 Olympics hero Jesse Owens visiting the campus. He sold this photo to local African-American newspapers. He also sold it to four big daily newspapers in D.C. This was a big moment for his career. After two years at Howard, he went to the New York Institute of Photography. He finished his studies there in 1938.

New York City Photos

New York City was a great place for McNeill to take pictures. He photographed dancers at the Savoy Ballroom. He also captured cartoonist E. Simms Campbell and musicians Lionel Hampton and Benny Goodman. They were rehearsing for the famous Carnegie Hall Concert of 1938.

While studying, McNeill learned that Fortune magazine wanted photos of domestic workers. These were mostly Black women who gathered on street corners to find jobs each day. McNeill developed his own style of photography. He showed the workers with their surroundings. For example, he photographed three women and a man under a movie poster that said, "Make a Wish."

He followed one worker, Bessie Windstown, as she looked for a job. He photographed her talking about her pay with a white housewife. He even took pictures of her scrubbing the floor at the employer's home. Fortune magazine did not use his photos. Their story showed the employers' side. But McNeill published his photo essay, "The Bronx Slave Market," in Flash! magazine. He then returned to Washington in 1938 and became a freelance photographer.

Documenting Virginia

In 1938, Sterling Allen Brown, a professor at Howard University, noticed McNeill's work. Brown was starting a project called the Negro in Virginia study. This project aimed to record three centuries of Black history. It used old stories, facts, and photographs.

McNeill spent three weeks in September 1938 traveling through Virginia. He was not paid for this. He drove alone in his car. He had 160 images for his camera and some film for another. He had to be very careful about what he photographed. He took pictures of workers in many jobs, from hard labor to middle-class professions. He photographed tobacco workers, longshoremen, and bankers.

Only a few of McNeill's photos of Black life in Virginia were published. They appeared in Virginia: A Guide to the Old Dominion and The Negro in Virginia in 1940.

Washington, D.C. Life

During the 1930s and 1940s, McNeill took many pictures of African Americans in Washington, D.C. He photographed events for the Boy and Girl Scouts. He also covered events for the Black YMCA and YWCA. He recorded weddings, graduations, and meetings. One famous photo shows a group baptism by Pentecostal minister Daddy Grace. He also focused on people doing everyday things. These included an iceman, a hairdresser, and boys reading comic books.

After his success with the Jesse Owens photo, McNeill kept sending pictures to Black newspapers. He had a good eye for important events in the African American community. He also knew where things were happening. McNeill said, "People would give me tips and leads; knowing that I was a photographer, they’d call me up."

McNeill photographed both famous people and ordinary ones. He captured people up close in his pictures. Nothing took away from the main subject. Famous people he photographed include Joe Lewis, Duke Ellington, Hattie McDaniel, and Ella Fitzgerald. He also photographed Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. He caught Bill "Bojangles" Robinson dancing from backstage. He recorded the opening of the T Street Post Office in Washington, which had an all-Black staff. He also documented the opening of the Washington office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was there to record William Hastie becoming governor of the Virgin Islands. He also documented the growing civil rights movement in the 1940s.

During World War II, McNeill served in the Army. He was stationed in Alabama and Guadalcanal. He spent much of this time as a First Sergeant in an all African-American company. He left the Army in 1945 as a Second Lieutenant. He also took many personal photos of his time in the Army.

When he returned to Washington, he started his photo business again, called McNeill News Photo Service. The United Negro College Fund hired him. He documented how veterans were using education programs at eleven Black colleges after the war.

Government Work

In 1950, McNeill became a government photographer for the Department of Defense. In 1956, James Steven “Steve” Wright brought McNeill to the U.S. Department of State. There, McNeill became a portrait photographer. Wright had worked hard to break down racial barriers for photographers. By 1954, Wright was the head of the Photographic Branch. McNeill benefited from Wright's fair policy of giving assignments to anyone available. This gave all photographers equal chances. McNeill later took over Wright's position as Photographic Branch Chief. He retired from the Department of State in 1978. As a portrait photographer, McNeill took official pictures of Secretaries of State Dean Rusk, Henry Kissinger, and Cyrus Vance.

In 1997, McNeill was named Photographer of the Year by the Fotocraft Camera Club of Washington. In 1998, he received the Maurice Sorrell Lifetime Achievement Award. This award came from the EXPOSURE GROUP, an association of African American Photographers.

Exhibitions of His Work

In recent years, McNeill's photographs have been shown in many places. This is largely thanks to Deborah Willis. She is an artist who recognized McNeill's talent.

His work was shown in 1983 and 1984 in "A Century of Black Photographers." This was a national traveling exhibit.

In 1985, his photos were shown in Chicago and Los Angeles. This was part of an exhibit called The Black Photographer: An American View. In Washington, D.C., his work was shown at the Sumner School in 1989. It was also at the Smithsonian Institution's Anacostia Museum in 1991.

His work was also part of the 1992 exhibit "To Achieve These Rights." This exhibit was about ending segregation in Washington.

In 1994 and 1995, his photos were featured in the exhibit Free Within Ourselves. This was at the National Museum of American Art.

In 1996, many of his photos were shown in Visual Journal. This was a major exhibit at the Smithsonian's Center for African American History and Culture.

In late 1997, McNeill's photos of his childhood neighborhood were a big part of a project. This project was called "Remembering 'U' Street" by the Washington Historical Society.

His photos of Washington in the 1930s and 1940s have been in local TV shows. They have also been on Black Entertainment Television. A German TV show focused on his work in early 1998. His 1938 photo "Make a Wish" and a 1938 photo of a farmer worker are online. They are part of the Smithsonian's "Oh Freedom! Teaching African American Civil Rights through American Art at the Smithsonian" website. You can see these and other McNeill photos in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's catalog.

McNeill's photos were an important source for The Washington Post Magazine's "Backlight" feature. This feature highlights special moments in Washington history.

McNeill also gave talks and lectures about Washington in the 1930s and 1940s. He appeared on National Public Radio. He also judged photo competitions for the Greater Washington Council of Camera Clubs.

Here are some recent projects that featured his photography:

• "Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present." This was Deborah Willis’ book and traveling exhibit. It opened at New York University in October 2009. It closed at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in July 2014.
• Smithsonian Museum of American Art: "African-American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond." This exhibit ran from April 27 to September 3, 2012.

His photos are also in the Museum of Modern Art's exhibit One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series and other Visions of the Great Movement North. This exhibit ran from April 3 to September 7, 2015.

A selection of McNeill's work is on display at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. The show is called Robert McNeill 1938: A Collective Portrait of African American Life in Virginia. It ran from November 16, 2019, to May 26, 2020.

Personal Life

Robert H. McNeill passed away on May 25, 2005. He had two children, Robert McNeill Jr. and Susan McNeill.