DIGITAL COLLECTIONS

Henry Szymanski Collection

This collection contains images taken between 1938 and 1941 by a young photographer, Henry Szymanski, Sr. (1921-1985). The collection includes over three-hundred photographs, largely taken of the African American community of Wilmington, Delaware. Szymanski photographed everyday scenes during the waning years of the Depression as well as a large number of small businesses and their owners, local restaurants and night spots, churches, festivals, and parades. 

Szymanski was a teenager during these years and probably made some extra money selling his photographs of the local businesses to their owners. He left Wilmington in 1941 to enter the Army Air Corps during World War II. After the war, he continued to practice photography, making some money from it professionally, although he never worked full time as a photographer.

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An American Family In World War II: The Minker Family Letters

This collection presents approximately 650 letters that the five members of the Minker family of Wilmington exchanged while Ralph L. Minker, Jr., served as a B-17 pilot during World War II. It also includes Minker’s detailed scrapbook of his war experiences. It is one of the largest known family collections to have survived the war.

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Please Note:

All digital files, images, and data on the Delaware Historical Society (DHS) web site are the property of the Delaware Historical Society. Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Reproduction or redistribution of these materials in any form without the express written permission of the Delaware Historical Society is strictly prohibited. Any public or commercial use without prior written permission is also prohibited. 

For more information about obtaining a digital reproduction and/or permission to use a digital image from the DHS collection, please visit the Rights and Reproductions page.