James VanDerZee (1886-1983) created a photographic history of the people of Harlem--celebrities and ordinary people, in hope and despair--covering over 60 years.

James VanDerZee was born in Lenox, Massachusetts, on June 29, 1886, in a four bedroom frame house built by his grandfather. His parents had moved to Lenox three years earlier from New York City, where they had worked as a maid and butler to retired President Ulysses S. Grant. James was the second of six children.

His parents earned their living in Lenox by baking, and their sons delivered the products on foot and horseback. The VanDerZee youngsters were such excellent students that James once told a reporter that "the other kids didn't try." VanDerZee learned photography in a front bedroom of that frame house, but he was at least 14 before he took a picture that satisfied him--one of his brother Walter's school class. Moreover, their lives were enriched...