Rip's 1940s:

A Selection of Photographs of Charlottesville and Albemarle County in the 1940s, from the Russell "Rip" Payne Collection

(Detail: Spectators view FDR's funeral train as it passes through town at dawn.)

(Click here to see all the photos scanned for this exhibit, in catalogue form, with no captions)

(Click here to see selected photos arranged by topic, with captions)

"In the late summer of 2002, Mr. Ernest Hampton Breeden presented the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society with an extraordinary gift that promises to dramatically shape the future of the Society. That gift, in the form of tens of thousands of photographic images of Charlottesville and Albemarle County between the years 1938 and 1988, is a direct challenge to the Society to enter into the 21st century and the cutting edge of archival and exhibit technology . . .

"Russell 'Rip' Payne (1918-1990) always had with him the latest gadget, “whether it was a Minox ‘spy camera’ or a beeper,” says Payne’s long-time associate Jim Carpenter in a recent article in the Daily Progress by David Dudurka. Payne worked for the Progress for 20 years, and also worked as a freelance photographer for the Associated Press and United Press International.

"Payne’s subject matter was extraordinarily broad. There are images of Dogwood Parades, high school football games, fires, floods, and car accidents; of people at work in their offices, in shops, in sawmills and orchards; of weddings, anniversaries and funerals; aerial shots of the city and the county; civic gatherings and commemorations; of Rock Hill Academy sock hops and college mixers; of historic buildings and prominent personages (including William Faulkner, Governor Mills Godwin, Senator John Warner, Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor). There are images of young GI’s leaving for war, of Franklin Roosevelt’s funeral train passing slowly through town, and of the day Lane High School was finally desegregated. By any measure, the Payne Collection is an invaluable resource of local history." (from a 2004 Historical Society press release)

This is a simple on-line version of an exhibit of photographs, scanned, assembled and mounted during the spring of 2006. Included are many photographs which were not included in the final exhibit at the Historical Society, mostly for lack of space.

The images on this web exhibit are here presented at 480 to 640 pixels at 72 dpi (low resolution for quicker web viewing). Most of these have also been printed as 8x10 inch prints at 300 dpi for display at the Historical Society, and a select few were enlarged up to 30 inches wide. The photos are always available for close inspection in our library. We welcome researchers and volunteers who can identify the people, places and events that are the subjects of these photos, or whoare otherwise interested in helping us preserve the Payne Collection. Please contact us here.

Higher-resolution copies of images from the Payne Collection will be available for sale, either as commercially produced prints of various sizes, or as digital files. Please call 434-296-1492 for more information .

Along with additional commentary and a short biography of Rip Payne, the captions were for the most part written by volunteer curator and former board director Jane Myers. Assisting Ms. Myers in identifying, selecting and scanning these images, largely from negatives, was U.Va. intern Tim Monaghan.

We appreciate the support and patience of the family of Rip Payne, particularly the Breedens, who in 2002 donated to the Historical Society the thousands of negatives and hundreds of prints which Rip produced in his long career (roughly 1938-1988). We also are thankful for grant support from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, the Perry Foundation, the BamaWorks Foundation, and Bank of America. Finally, we are grateful for the hundreds of members and volunteers of the Society, and for the contributors to the Fund for Local History (formerly the Historical Society's Annual Giving Fund).

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