• Roll, Jordan, Roll. Text by Julia Peterkin (1880–1961); photographic studies by Doris Ulmann (1882–1934). New York: Robert O. Ballou, [1933]. Copy 236 of 350 copies printed by letterpress and copper-plate photogravure. Signed by the author and photographer.

Curatorial note:

Ulmann and Peterkin’s collaborative publication focuses on the lives of a group of former slaves and their descendants in the Gullah coastal region of South Carolina. Their title derives from an eighteenth-century English spiritual that became popular among enslaved communities in America and was later appropriated as an encoded message of escape. Trained by the American pictorialist photographer Clarence White (1871–1925), Ulmann had already made thousands of ethnographic studies of the inhabitants of Appalachia, South Carolina, and Georgia in the 1920s and 1930s. Her sensitive and respectful portraits contrast with the anecdotal and paternalistic texts provided by Peterkin, a popular novelist whose husband owned the former plantation where many of the people depicted still lived. The beauty of Ulmann’s work is greatly enhanced by the tones and textures of the hand-pulled photogravure plates found only in this special edition of the book.

and

Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology. Purchase supported by the Elise and Wesley Wright Jr. ’51 Marquand Book Fund.

Collections:
Title:
  • Roll, Jordan, roll / the text by Julia Peterkin ; the photographic studies by Doris Ulmann
Language:
  • English
Call number:
  • Oversize E185.6 .P46 1933q
  • Electronic Resource
Extent:
  • 341 pages, 3 unnumbered pages : illustrations ; 30 cm
Format:
  • Book
Type:
  • Photogravures (prints)
  • Bookplates (Provenance)
  • Authors' inscriptions (Provenance)
  • Insertions (Provenance)
  • Limitation statements (Printing)
  • Half bindings (Binding)
  • Pictorial works
Description:
  • Plates included in page count.
  • Plate signed by Doris Ulmann laid in.
  • "Of this special edition ... 350 copies, each numbered and signed by Julia Peterkin and Doris Ulmann, have been printed by letterpress and copper-plate photogravure. Of these 327 are for sale. Letterpress by The Maple Press Company. Photogravure by the Photogravure and Colour Company. Binding by the J.F. Tapley Co. This copy is number [blank]."--Colophon.
  • SAX copy: Marquand Library holds copy 236 of 350.
  • SAX copy: Engraved bookplate on front paste-down ("Ray Baker Harris"); author's inscription on binder's flyleaf ("Inscribed for Ray Harris with all good wishes, Julia Peterkin"); hand-written letter by photographer on her stationary tipped in between binder's and publisher's flyleaves.
Publisher:
  • New York : Robert O. Ballou, Publisher, [1933]
  • ©1933
Subject:
  • African Americans—Social life and customs
  • African Americans—Social life and customs—Pictorial works
  • Plantation life—United States
  • Plantation life—United States—Pictorial works
  • Photogravures (prints)—United States—20th century
  • Bookplates (Provenance)—United States—20 century
  • Authors' inscriptions (Provenance)—United States—20 century
  • Insertions (Provenance)—United States—20 century
  • Limitation statements (Printing)—New York—New York—20th century
  • Half bindings (Binding)—New York—New York—20th century
Title sort:
  • Roll, Jordan, roll / the text by Julia Peterkin ; the photographic studies by Doris Ulmann.
Spatial:
  • United States
Binding note:
  • SAX copy: Half bound in cream publisher's cloth and brown paper, gold-titled, leather spine label, binder's stamp in blind on rear board.
Created:
  • 1933-01-01T00:00:00Z/1933-12-31T23:59:59Z
Date:
  • 1933-1933
Location:
  • SAX Oversize E185.6 .P46 1933q
  • SAX Electronic Resource
  • ELF1 Oversize E185.6 .P46 1933q
  • ELF1 Electronic Resource
Identifier:
  • ark:/88435/3n204288w
Edm rights:
  • In Copyright
Creator:
  • Peterkin, Julia Mood, 1880-1961
Author:
  • Peterkin, Julia Mood, 1880-1961
Printer:
  • Maple Press Company
Edition:
  • Special edition.
Contributor:
  • Ballou, Robert O. (Robert Oleson), 1892-1977
Former owner:
  • Harris, Ray Baker, 1907-1963
Binder:
  • J.F. Tapley Co.
Range label:
  • Logical
View in catalog:
Available online: