African-Americans at Picnic / ca. 1890 / Bon Air, Chesterfield County, Virginia / Cook Collection 1384

Developing Richmond: Photographs from the Cook Studio

Mar 7, 2019 - Nov 10, 2019

When photographer George S. Cook relocated with his family to Richmond in 1880, he arrived in a city caught between the old and the new: Richmond bustled with post-Civil War construction and economic enterprise even while it held onto the antebellum social and political order.

Acquired by the Valentine Museum in 1954, the Cook Studio’s more than 10,000 negatives and prints visually document Richmond at the turn of the 20^th century.  Experience imagery taken by George and his son Huestis Cook of this conflicted and changing city.