Harvey Slade Collection--1,767 photographs consisting primarily of Harvey Slade's studio portraits of Leon County people

Collection Number: M87- 26
Creator: Slade's Studio
Title: Photographic collection, 1947-1974.
Quantity: 40,000 photographs (negatives, b/w, some color)
The images on this Web site represent a selection from the Slade Collection. The entire collection can be viewed onsite at the State Archives of Florida in Tallahassee.

Description: This collection consists of acetate negatives primarily of Harvey Slade's studio portraits of Leon County people but also including images from his work as a wedding and commercial photographer.

Slade's was the major portrait studio in Tallahassee for many years, and most major figures in political and social circles were photographed there, including Governors Claude Kirk, Farris Bryant, Leroy Collins, Charles Johns, Fuller Warren, and Spessard Holland and their families; Lieutenant Governor Tom Adams; Commissioner of Agriculture Nathan Mayo; Senator Claude Pepper; and Supreme Court justices and circuit court judges.

Other images in the collection include banks (including Lewis State Bank), hotels (including Floridan Hotel), car dealers, and other businesses; consumer products; government buildings (city hall, governor's mansion, Supreme Court building, House of Representatives offices and chamber); high school and college campus buildings, groups, and events; churches; and street scenes.

Historical Note: Harvey E. Slade was born in Valdosta, Georgia and grew up in Moultrie. He studied photography under several nationally-known photographers before opening a studio in Moultrie with his wife, Helen Marion Burr of Tallahassee. They moved to Tallahassee in 1941 and opened a studio on South Monroe Street. The business prospered, and was moved to larger quarters on North Monroe Street in the 1950s.

Harvey Slade was active in professional photographic organizations and served as president of the Florida Photographic Association and as director of the Southeastern Photographers Association. He continued his photographic work until illness forced him to close the studio in 1974.