The photographs in this collection are arranged alphabetically by topic, beginning with Agriculture and ending with World War II. After the subject files, there are two boxes of unidentified lantern slides (1900s-1920s) and seven folders containing correspondence and miscellaneous items (1898-1979). Six boxes and one folder of oversized prints are arranged at the end of the collection. Most of the collection is black and white, but a few of the oversized prints are hand colored. Description of the collection is done to the folder level under each subject heading. Folders are numbered and assigned a brief descriptive title, followed by approximate dates. Numbers in parentheses, e.g. (2) or (2n), indicate the number of prints or negatives contained in each folder. Lantern slides and postcards are indicated by the abbreviations (LS) and (PCD) respectively.

This collection is organized into a hundred and ten categories according to topic. The largest groupings of photographs include the topic: Agriculture; Archaeology; Birds; Boats and Boating; Brimley, H.H.; Cape Hatteras; Cities; Coastal Scenes; Expositions; Fish and Fishing; Forestry and Forest Industries; Fruits and Orchards; Geology; Mines and Mining; Museum of Natural History; Scenic Central NC; Scenic Coastal Plains; Scenic Western NC; Sharks and Rays; and Sport Fishing. A complete listing of each topic and its contents is located in the container list.

 TO REQUEST A PHOTOGRAPH: The complete call number for an image cannot be established with the folder number and description alone since folder numbers are repeated for each subject. One must use the complete subject name, any sub-series name, and the folder number and description to compile a proper call number. For example:

Folder 13, Mountain scene and field, ca. 1906

Without a subject designation, this image cannot be located since it could appear in any one of a variety of subjects. At the outset it would appear that the most likely subject is Scenic Western North Carolina, but in reality this image is in Field Crops within the subject Agriculture. The correct way to request this item would be:

Agriculture, Field Crops, Folder 13, Mountain scene and field, ca. 1906

Available for research

Copyright is retained by the authors of these materials, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law (Title 17 US Code). Individual researchers are responsible for using these materials in conformance with copyright law as well as any donor restrictions accompanying the materials.

Processed by Stephen E. Massengill and James Mark Valsame, January, 1992;

Encoded by Dietra Stanley, June, 2004;

Additional encoding by Ashley Yandle, June, 2006;

Updated by Aaron Cusick, January, 2014;

Even before the end of Reconstruction in 1877, North Carolina had begun promoting the advantages of the state in an effort to attract new residents and investment capital. Photography, as an emerging technology in that era, was incorporated into the efforts to document the resources of the state. The North Carolina Geological Survey and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture were the agencies of state government involved in these promotional activities, and The State Museum, formed in 1879, became the repository for the joint collection of photographs.

The Brimley Collection is named for Herbert Hutchinson Brimley, the first Curator (and later, first Director) of The North Carolina State Museum of Natural History. Brimley was born in Bedfordshire, England, on 7 March 1861 and immigrated with his parents to Raleigh in the winter of 1880. His first night in the city was spent in the National Hotel, the building bought the following year for the new home of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and the site of Brimley's work for the next 60 years. During his years of service with the State Museum, Brimley assembled North Carolina displays at various national and international expositions. In preparation of his exhibits for the various shows, Brimley did his own photographic work, and traveled throughout North Carolina to capture scenes for display in his exhibits.

H.H. Brimley took many of the photographs in the collection himself, and he was involved in all aspects of the work in which the photographs were used. His hiring in 1884 by S.G. Worth to prepare fish specimens for the Fisheries Exhibit at the North Carolina State Exposition coincides closely with the beginning of routine photographic work by the Department of Agriculture, and two photographs in the collection, although they are of poor quality, show that exhibit. The photographs in the Brimley Collection were used in the state's exhibits at numerous expositions. They were displayed framed and hung on the walls or, in the case of the Boston Food Fair, secured along the edges of the cases and mounted on matboard sheets that visitors could peruse. However, they also contributed to the expositions by providing illustrations for the various publications available at the exhibit's desk.

When Brimley died in 1946 at the age of 85, he was still an active state employee. After his death, the photographs remained at the Museum of Natural History for in house use by the museum staff. Under the directorship of Harry Towles Davis (1897-1978), the collection increased in size, and continued to be used in various exhibits and publications. Due to a lack of space and poor storage conditions, the Museum of Natural History transferred the collection to the State Archives in 1962 for permanent preservation.

[Identification of item], PhC.42, Herbert Hutchinson Brimley Photograph Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC, USA.

The collection was acquired on May 19, 1982 from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, Office of Agri-Business, Museum of Natural History, Raleigh, NC.

Additional information on topics found in this collection may be found in the Manuscript and Archives Reference System (MARS)  http://mars.archives.ncdcr.gov/BasicSearch.aspx

This collection of photographic negatives and prints is made up of the photographs taken and overseen by Herbert Hutchinson Brimley (1861-1946) for the Department of Agriculture, the North Carolina Geological Survey and the State Museum. Images in the collection include glass plate negatives, film negatives, and a number of different types of original prints in a variety of sizes.

An accomplished photographer, Brimley's photographs document many aspects of life in the state between the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries. Between the time the earliest photographs in the collection were taken, probably around 1870, and World War I, these pictures were alternately on the road representing North Carolina abroad and in other states or were on exhibit in the State Museum. They also furnished illustrations for numerous state publications and were useful in the other programs of the agencies. Between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and 1917 the collection grew rapidly. The photographs in this early collection show North Carolina as its leaders wanted the state to be seen; they wanted to encourage the development of an abundant resource base, and they were unselfconscious in presenting a picture of scenery, people, and life. In these pictures things just are what they are; no social agenda other than the betterment of North Carolina through growth and progress is espoused. After World War I the nature of the collection changed. Rather than continuing to make collections of natural resource pictures, the Museum photographers concentrated, for the most part, on the narrower field of in-house museum life, exhibit preparation, and various day-to-day activities.