Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
Mary Emily Henry Cooper |
Object Name |
Image, Digital |
Photographer |
Verdi, Vincent |
Date |
2004 |
Description |
Digital color photograph, JPEG format. Interior view with Mary E.H. Cooper standing near the altar at Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church in Rossville, Staten Island. She wears a dress and jacket and eyeglasses. Her hand rests on a curved wooden altar rail. An altar table is set with a red cloth, a standing cross, and two candlesticks, and a book (probably a Bible). A lectern, chairs, baptismal font, American flag, and hymn board are also visible in the view. (Keywords: New York City, Early Twenty-first Century, Black History) |
Acquisition |
Gift of Vincent Verdi |
Ownership and History |
This photograph was created as part of the exhibition "Worship, Celebration, and Ritual on a Small Island: A Photographic Essay of Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church by Vincent Verdi." The Staten Island Historical Society partnered with photographer Vincent Verdi to display these images at Historic Richmond Town in 2005. The exhibition was made possible by funding from the Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island and PSC-CUNY Research Foundation. Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church was first established in the 1850s in the Staten Island neighborhood known as Sandy Ground. (Its name at that time was African Zion Methodist Church.) The church structure depicted in these photographs was built in 1897 and designated a New York City landmark in 2011; it is located at 854 Bloomingdale Road. Mary Emily (Henry) Cooper was born in 1928, the daughter of Howard Clayton Henry and Susan Landin Henry (and a sister of Lois A. H. Mosley). Mary married Elmer Cooper and the couple raised four daughters. |
Earliest Date |
2004 |
Latest Date |
2004 |
Subjects |
African Americans Churches Interiors Religious communities |
Lexicon Sub-category |
Documentary Artifact |
Catalog Number |
05.003.0002 |
Support Acknowledgment |
Online Collections Database record made possible by Barbara Newington, April 2018. |
Legal Status |
The photographer retains copyright to this image. |