Joe Louis, Gene Autry, Muhammad Ali, Nat King Cole, Bob Hope, Sammy Davis, Jr., Richard Pryor, at least three Presidents, several presidential candidates, and W.E.B. DuBois. The UMass Amherst Libraries' Department of Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) maintains a digital archive of the W.E.B. Du Bois Papers,
which contains written correspondence between Ill. Helm and Du Bois discussing the purchase of photographs. Ill. Helm was considered a leading photographer in central Illinois and the state's most influential African American photographer during the mid-20th century. Ill. Helm passed away on January 1, 1994, but left behind a great legacy. As Deputy for the Orient of Illinois, he established the Illinois Council of Deliberation Scholarship Fund, which has aided many people in their efforts to pursue higher education. Additionally, the Illinois State Library and Office of the Illinois Secretary of State maintain his photographs in the digital archive of the "Eddie Winfred Doc Helm Photograph Collection." The collection may be found at http://www.idaillinois.org/digital/collection/DocHelm/. In May 2020, the Illinois State Archives was awarded a federal grant of "$60,178 to support a project to preserve, digitize, and provide online access via the Illinois Digital Archives to 21,000 photographs from the Doc Helm Collection." Several of his photographs may also be found at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Following Ill. Helm, there have been several photographers that have continued to capture the history and activities of the USC through their lens, such as Ill. George T. Smith, 33°, Ill. Richard A. Maxey, 33°, and Ill. Prince Burnett, 33°. They are rarely in photographs, as they are often behind the camera rather than in front of it. I am not an appointed photographer of the USC; however, I have volunteered to help visually document USC activities, including the “United Supreme Council Way” Street Renaming Ceremony in May 2022 and the “Historic Walk of Fame Garden” reveal in May 2019, and the signing of the
Correspondence between W.E.B. DuBois and E. Winifred Helm
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