Scope and Contents
The Daphne Maxwell Reid papers are comprised of thirty three boxes and span the years 1951-2018. The collection is arranged in eight series: Biographical Materials, Modeling Career, Acting Career, Fashion Design Career, Subject Files, Publications, Awards, and Costume Collection.
The Biographical Materials section includes her baby book. Loose cards and photographs previously inserted between the pages were separated and placed in folders following the baby book; the original locations are noted. This section includes Maxwell Reid’s high school yearbook and report card. There is a sizeable assortment of newspaper clippings, correspondence, photographs, and memos regarding Maxwell Reid’s crowning as Homecoming Queen in 1967. This section also contains Maxwell Reid’s personal agendas and calendars, sometimes multiple for the same year, as well as notebooks that contain a few diary entries and snippets of poetry. The programs folder includes events Maxwell Reid attended or at which she was keynote speaker; Links Incorporated, the Virginia Community Colleges Association, and Virginia Union University. Several programs include a biography of Reid.
The Modeling Career section includes prints, commercial advertisements in catalogues, magazines, and newspapers. Notably, the collection contains the original 1967 Seventeen magazine and original 1969 Glamour magazine with Maxwell Reid on the covers. While it is assumed that the photographs in this section range from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, the majority are unlabeled and undated. This section also includes slides, negatives, and unused shots from various photoshoots. Many of these photographs, slides, and negatives were housed in three-ring album pages, which have been collected in box 17. Some original album pages were often marked up, while not being made of preservation-appropriate plastic. In these cases, materials were rehoused in appropriate new pages while retaining the empty marked page behind it ...
