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Cultural Conversation: Through the Lens of Time

Love-Thornell Collection of Black American Photographs

Jacqui Love-Thornell discusses her collection of over 1,300 photographs documenting Black American life from mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century over a 15-year period. 

Join Jacqui Love-Thornell as she discusses her exquisite photo collection which she generously donated to the African American Research Library and Cultural Center in 2022. The collection contains over 1300 photographs including cabinet cards, tintypes, daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, stereotypes, cartes de visite and postcards documenting Black American life from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. Jaquelyn Love-Thornell collected the photographs over a 15-year period.

Born in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Florida, her parents Minnie Tysdale Love and Wyatt Love, moved to Newark, New Jersey when she was in the 7th grade.  Jacqui later attended Trent State University. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Early Childhood Education with minors in Math and Psychology. 

Love-Thornell also worked as an assistant to the publisher for the Washington Post and the Miami Herald. She later served as the Head of the Human Resources department at the Miami Herald.

Group with hands extended. The Love-Thornell Collection of Black American Photographs, African American Research Library and Cultural Center, Broward County Library.	Wedding party, New York City, 1932. The Love-Thornell Collection of Black American Photographs, African American Research Library and Cultural Center, Broward County Library.

About the African American Research Library and Cultural Center 

The Broward County African American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARLCC) is located in the Sistrunk community, one of the oldest historically Black communities named for one of Fort Lauderdale’s first Black physicians. Opening to the public on October 26, 2002, AARLCC became the third public library of its kind in the United States dedicated to the study of Black history and culture. The 60,000 square-foot Center serves as a repository of materials related to the local, national, and international voices of the African diaspora with more than 85,000 books, manuscripts, artifacts, framed art, print, photography, audiovisual, and documents held in our Adult Services Section and Special Collections. The Youth Services Section features a special collection of Coretta Scott King Award books and the Ashley Bryan Art Collection from illustrators of African Descent. AARLCC also features a 5,000 sq. ft. museum, a 300-seat state-of-the-art theatre, and a Computer Training Center.

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