Full-length group portrait depicting the eighteen African American men members of the band, including the Marching Captain, standing as a group, in front of the African American owned bank, possibly during the Fifty-Third Annual Session of the Delaware Annual Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church held at the East Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church in March 1916. The men wear uniforms, including caps with insignias and jackets with braiding details. Most are posed with their instruments in hand. The band drums, one marked "East Calvary Phila, Pa.," rest at the feet of the men in the center of the group. The Captain, in the left, wears white shoes and holds a marching baton to the ground. The Brown & Stevens bank building adorned with awnings is visible in the background. Brown & Stevens, founded by partners E.C. Brown and Andrew Stevens, Jr. was the leading Black bank in Philadelphia in the the early 1900s before ceasing operations in 1925.The Delaware Annual conference was established in 1864 for African Amerian Methodists in Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic Region. East Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church was under the pastorship of Charles Albert Tindley in 1916., Title supplied by cataloger., Attributed to William T. Robbins. Robbins was a Black Philadelphia photographer who photographed the members and events of the East Cavalry Methodist Church between at least circa 1916 and circa 1928. Robbins also worked as a shipping clerk between about 1920 and about 1950 as cited in U.S. Census records and city directories., Date inferred from attributed photographer and content., RVCDC
Creator
Robbins, William T., approximately 1898-, photographer
Date
[1916?]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photo - Robbins [P.2025.14.5]
