Otis N. Pruitt and Calvin Shanks were studio/commercial photographers in Columbus (Lowndes County), Mississippi from the late 1920s until the 1970s, covering studio portraits to events and gatherings outside of the formal studio. Pruitt owned the studio from 1920 until 1960, who then sold it to his business partner, Shanks, who ran the studio until his death in 1981.
The exhibit highlights 41 photographs of daily life in Columbus and surrounding areas, including baptisms and views of the city streets, found in the Otis N. Pruitt and Calvin Shanks Photographic Collection. There is also a photograph of African-American farmer Sylvester Harris, who became the subject of a 1935 song, “Sylvester and his Mule Blues,” after a phone conversation with President Franklin Roosevelt saved him from foreclosure.
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