The Deborah Willis Papers document Willis's career as an historian of photography, exhibition curator, photographer and author. The collection contains working files for several of Willis's books including "J. P. Ball, Dauguerrean and Studio Photographer" (1993), "Imagining Families: Images and Voices" (1994), "The Family of Black America" (1996), "Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present" (2000), "Picturing Us: African American Identity in Photography" (1994), and "The Black Female Body: A Photographic History" (2002). Contained therein are book reviews, book signings information, contracts, and permissions agreements with authors and institutions, correspondence, drafts of introductions, exhibition reviews, invitations, photographs, negatives, photocopies of images, resumes, bios, curriculum vitae, artist statements, programs, audio tapes, press information, and palm cards. Promotional files for and working and research files for exhibitions including, "Reflecting Black: a History of Black Photographers, 1840 to the Present" (2000), "Sister Circle: Black Women and Work," "Paul Robeson" centennial celebration exhibition including committee agendas, correspondence, notes, and proposals (1994, 1997), among others. There are also files for the African American Institutional Study of the Smithsonian Museum, The Nathan Cummings Foundation (for the exhibition "Self-Evident; Exploring Democracy Through Photography"), and the "African Americans and Europe International Conference" (1992). There are also subject files that contain correspondence, finding aids, individuals, professional associations, reports, printed materials and clippings related to photography, black photography for a number of photographers and filmmakers including Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, Isaac Julien, and information about Willis's collaborator, Carla Williams. There are also files for Sara Baartmen, also known as "The Hottentot Venus," and tennis star Arthur Ashe. Additionally there is a script, "Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey," by William Greaves, 1995, along with cassette tapes labeled "Bunche documentary conference." Files containing vitas and resumes for Willis are also in the collection, along with her dissertation proposal, "Towards a New Identity: Reading the Photographs of the New Negro," as well as a file about her murdered nephew Songha Thomas Willis. A small amount of files relating to Willis's work as curator at the Schomburg Center, and exhibition curator at the Smithsonian and the Studio Museum of Art, as well as subject files for exhibitions, finding aids, collections, individuals, and professional associations can be found in this collection. Additionally, there is information about Willis's winning the MacArthur Foundation Fellow award, files regarding several panel discussions, programs, speaking engagements and symposia including "Deborah Willis: Tied to Memory" (2000), "Image, Text and the African American Experience" (2002), and "Sistahood of Work" (2001).
