Photographs by former Afro-American photographer Paul S. Henderson – a rare visual history of  black Baltimore between 1940 and 1960 – are going to be on display at City Hall in the rotunda starting June 5.

The 46-piece print exhibit, free and open to the public, is nearly twice the size of the Henderson show currently hanging at the Maryland Historical Society (201 W. Monument St.).

City Hall  is the first stop for the Society’s new traveling exhibit, “Paul Henderson: Maryland’s Civil Rights Era in Photographs,” archivists there announced today.

Photo prints on display at City Hall and  at the Historical Society depict some well-known historical figures.

Actor and singer Paul Robeson, future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Gov. Theodore McKeldin, actress and singer Pearl Bailey, and gospel legend Mahalia Jackson are included. There are also numerous bygone landmarks such as the Royal Theatre and Pennsylvania Avenue, as well as students and educators of Morgan State College.

Many unknown Maryland residents are in the photos, a problem the curators would like to solve with the public’s help.

Help Curators Caption the Photos

The exhibit follows an identification event in April sponsored by the Pierians Incorporated, Baltimore Chapter “during which more than 100 attendees helped identify many people and places,” said Joe Tropea, the society’s curator of film and photographs, in a press release. Henderson was a commercial photographer as well as an Afro photographer, who captured images of weddings and other family events.

According to Tropea,  more work is needed to identify the people photographed.

“Most of the prints containing unknown people and places have QR codes printed on the labels that will take smartphone users to an online survey where they can type in names and other information,” he wrote.

Identification forms will also be available in the rotunda at City Hall near the prints.

Viewing times at City Hall (100 N. Holliday St.) are Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 5.p.m. Photo ID is required for entry into City Hall.

A preview of the photos can be found here.

Also worth checking out, the Henderson Collection blog.