KENNETH M. MURRAY PHOTOGRAPHS
1972-1987

East Tennessee State University
Archives of Appalachia
Box 70295
Johnson City, Tennessee 37614

E-mail: archives@etsu.edu
Telephone: (423) 439-4338

INTRODUCTION

Title: Kenneth M. Murray Photographs
Collection Number: Accession No. 145
Physical Description: 6.5 linear feet, 13 9" x 11" flat storage boxes
Creator: Kenneth M. Murray
Repository: Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee State University

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Provenance: On January 14, 1983, Kenneth M. Murray placed his photographs in the Archives of Appalachia. In 1988, Murray donated additional photographs, and both donations have been combined into one collection. Four additional photographs of the Ku Klux Klan were accessioned in 1993 and interfiled under the subject heading Ku Klux Klan.

Restrictions: Murray retains the copyright to his photographs. Thus, neither copying nor publication is permitted without his written permission. Otherwise the collection is open for research.

Processing Information: Lee Burrow and Norma Myers completed processing and the collection was opened for research in February, 1985. Marie Tedesco revised the combined collections in January 1989.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Kenneth M. Murray, one of Appalachia's leading photographers, was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1943. In 1971 he earned a B.S. degree in art and journalism from East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee.

Murray's professional career has included both cinematography and photography. As a cinematographer Murray worked for WKPT-TV, Kingsport, Tennessee, and freelanced for "The Dick Cavet Show," "ABC Nightly News," CBS News, and UNESCO. The greater part of Murray's career, however, has been as a photographer. He has been employed by several newspapers, among them the Johnson City Press-Chronicle, Kingsport Times-News, Billings Gazette (Billings, Montana), Nashville Tennessean, Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Sarasota, Florida), and the Chattanooga Times. He also freelanced for a number of nationally known publications, including Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, and the New York Times. In addition, Murray has taught photography at East Tennessee State University, Chowan (Junior) College, Murfreesboro, North Carolina, the Kingsport, Tennessee Fine Arts Center, and the Jonesborough, Tennessee public schools.

Murray's photographs have been exhibited throughout the eastern United States. In 1980, for example, he was one of four artists represented at the exhibit, "The American Coal Miner," at the International Center of Photography, New York City. Two years later, Murray had prints exhibited at the B. Carroll Reece Museum, East Tennessee State University, and the West Virginia exhibit at the World's Fair, Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1984 the Spirit Center for the Arts, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Highlands Community College, Highlands, Georgia, displayed a selection of Murray's prints.

Murray has published three photographic essays: Down to Earth: People of Appalachia (1981); The American Coal Miner (1980); and Portrait of Appalachia (1985).

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The collection focuses on the land and people of southern Appalachia. Photographs of the land include, for example, the region's mountains, rivers, lakes, and forests. Also included, however, are landscapes damaged by mining, and scarred by neglect. Individuals depicted include farmers, coopers, miners and musicians. These individuals are young and old, prosperous and poor, contented and sad. Many of these prints have been published in Murray's aforementioned books.

The prints have been kept in a single series and are arranged alphabetically by subject. Most of the prints have been identified and dated on the reverse side by Murray.

Important subjects covered in the collection include:

Agriculture
Baptism
Blacksmithing
Bridges
Buildings
Carter's Fold (Hiltons, Va. : Music-hall)
Cemeterie
Cherokee Indians
Children
Churches
Coal miners
Coal mines and mining
Coke-ovens
Company towns
Coopers and cooperage
Country life
Dancing
Domestic animals
Education
Elections
Fairs
Family
Farm life
Farm produce--Marketing
Fishing
Floods
Forests and forestry
Foundries
Funeral rites and ceremonies
General stores
Handicraft
Hay--Harvesting
Healers
Hicks, Ray, 1922-
Housing
Ku Klux Klan
Landscape
Logging
Medical care
Melungeons
Mills and millwork
Molasses
Motorcyclists
Museum of Appalachia
Musical instruments
Musicians
Occupations
Oil well drilling
Plants
Plowing
Poverty--Appalachian Region
Public worship
Quilting
Railroads
Recreation
Revivals
Roadside marketing
Rural women
Rural youth
Sanitation, Household
Sawmills
Snake cults (Holiness churches)
Social interaction
Streets
Strikes and lockouts--Coal mining
Strip mining--Appalachian Region
Tobacco
Waterfalls
Winter
Women coal miners

BOX AND FOLDER LIST

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