Carl Van Vechten Photographic Portrait Collection

Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where both his parents were well educated. His mother established the Cedar Rapids Public Library and was musically talented. At a young age, he developed a passion for music and theatre. Van Vechten left Iowa to continue his education at the University of Chicago, where he studied, among other topics, music, art, and opera. He also began writing for a student newspaper and after graduating became a columnist for the Chicago America. He occasionally contributed photographs for his columns. Later he moved to New York, where he worked as an assistant music critic. Shortly after that, his interest in opera led him to travel to Europe. He continued to write essays on music and literature, among other subjects. Between 1922 and 1930, he published several novels. Although he was married for most of his life, Van Vechten has relationships with men and credited for building connections between the African-American, white, and gay communities.

Despite expressing controversial attitudes about African Americans in his early writings, Van Vechten has been credited with a role in the Harlem Renaissance. However, it may be that it consisted of popularizing Harlem nightlife among white audiences. His novels were dismissed by scholars and writers from W.E.B. DuBois to Ralph Ellison and David Levering Lewis. By the early 1930s, he stopped writing and took up photography. He used his apartment in Manhattan as a studio and photographed many notable people. That location is now a historical landmark. (Source: Wikipedia)