The withers collection will identify and digitize its collection of sports-related images as part of an ongoing project to create a comprehensive online image database and finding aid to fulfill…

The withers collection will identify and digitize its collection of sports-related images as part of an ongoing project to create a comprehensive online image database and finding aid to fulfill research requests received from writers, film makers, students and researchers. The sports collection covers several sports and represents some of the oldest work of photojournalist DR. Ernest c. Withers, dating back to 1948, when he began capturing images of teams in the negro baseball league. The collection includes never-seen-before images of jackie robinson, samuel "the jet" jethroe, and luke easter. The project team will work closely with the negro league committee and members of the society of baseball researchers on identification of persons and teams represented in the historic images. Other community resources and subject matter experts will be consulted, as needed, to identify persons in other sports images.