Szymanski Photograph Collection, 1938-1941

Selected images from the Szymanski Photograph Collection, 1938-1941. The collection contains images taken by a young photographer, Henry Szymanski, Sr. (1921-1985). It includes over three-hundred photographs, largely taken of the African American community of Wilmington, Delaware. Szymanski photographed everyday scenes during the waning years of the Depression as well as a large number of small businesses and their owners, local restaurants and night spots, churches, festivals, and parades. Szymanski was a teenager during these years and probably made some extra money selling his photographs of the local businesses to their owners. He left Wilmington in 1941 to enter the Army Air Corps during World War II. After the war, he continued to practice photography, making some money from it professionally, although he never worked full time as a photographer.