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Luckie family photographs

 Collection
Collection number: ahc.VIS20

Scope and Content

This collection documents four generations of the Luckie family, very early members of Atlanta's free African American community.

Dates

  • 1860-1940, undated

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use

This material is protected by copyright law. (Title 17, U.S. Code) Permission for use must be cleared through the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. Licensing agreement may be required.

Administrative/Biographical History

Solomon Luckie (?-1864) was a free African American who maintained his own barbershop and bathing salon in the Atlanta Hotel. He and his wife, Nancy Cunningham (1820-1910), were two of the less than forty free African Americans living in Atlanta in 1860. During the Union Army's siege of Atlanta in 1864, shell fragments from the bombardment struck Luckie. He was attended to at the Atlanta Medical College, but failed to recover and died from his wounds a few hours later. Solomon and Nancy had three children: Camilla (1841-1912); Loduska, and Odie. Camilla Luckie worked as a seamstress and had one son, Solomon Walter Luckie, Sr. (1866-1953). He was the son of Walter Rossel of St. Louis, Missouri.

Tradition maintains that Solomon Walter Luckie, Sr., was the first African American postal carrier in Atlanta and was an artisan and tailor. He married Ellen Euphrasia Beale (1869-1943) and the couple had three children: Ambrosia Luckie (1890-1985); Solomon Walter Luckie, Jr. (1893-1976); and Charles Edgar Luckie (1896-1914).

Solomon Walter Luckie, Jr., received a bachelor's degree from Clark University and a master's degree from Fordham University. He served in World War I and moved to New York City where he taught junior high school for 37 years.

Extent

12 image(s) (two ambrotypes, four albumen prints, four cabinet cards, and two photographic postcards)

Language

English