The Barbara Brown Collection

About

In 2010, Ms. Barbara Brown saw an old photograph album for sale at a local yard sale. Although she did not know any of the people in the album, she knew that it was a wonderful record of the life of a family. Ms. Brown purchased the album and donated it to the Camden Archives & Museum. Although some of the people in the photograph are identified, many are not. With research, and a lot of luck, we have gathered some information about this album.

The album chronicles the life of the Brevard family of Camden, SC. The Brevards owned a home in the present day Dusty Bend area. A middle-class African American family, the Brevards maintained strong extended family ties both locally and nationally, believed in an excellent education for their children, and some of them loved taking pictures. The majority of the photographs were taken in the 1930s-1940s and center around the Brevard children, their friends, and their school, Mather Academy.