December in Richmond through Edith Shelton’s Eyes

Richmond photographer Edith K. Shelton’s images show a glimpse of November in Richmond from the mid-1950s.

Edith Keesee Shelton (1898- 1989) was a local Richmond photographer, whose colorful collection of slides was donated to the Valentine by Mrs. Edgar Fisher, Jr. in 1991. Through The Universal Leaf Foundation’s funds and the help of cataloger Mrs. Elise, theEdith K. Shelton Collection has been available on the Valentine’s online archival database since May 2015.

Ms. Shelton was born in Richmond to Edith Morton Keesee and banker W. Penick Shelton. After attending Randolph Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, she returned home to live with her parents in an apartment at 1001 W. Franklin Street in 1918.  She started working in 1927 as an assistant secretary at the University of Richmond until she retired in 1969.  After both her parents passed away, Ms. Shelton lived alone in a series of apartments in the Fan District until her death in 1989.

There are over 3000 35mm color slides in the Edith K. Shelton Slide Collection, which mostly focus on Richmond’s older neighborhoods, architecture, and building projects.  More than 60 years later, her slides are still brilliantly colorful and vibrant.

The following images show a glimpse of December in Richmond from the mid-1950s through Edith Shelton’s eyes.

714 E. Clay Street, Jackson Ward neighborhood
December 1955
Edith K. Shelton
V.91.42.487

 

609 N. Henry Street, Jackson Ward neighborhood
December 1955
Edith K. Shelton
V.91.42.1254

 

812 Albemarle Street, Oregon Hill
December 1956
Edith K. Shelton
V.91.42.16

 

714 Spring Street, Oregon Hill
December 1956
Edith K. Shelton
V.91.42.2016 

 

810 – 816 Riverside Park, Oregon Hill
December 1956
Edith K. Shelton
V.91.42.3370

 

900 block of Park Avenue, the Fan District
December 1957
Edith K. Shelton
V.91.42.1809

Stephanie Trujillo
PR & Marketing Intern
The Valentine