I. Henry Phillips

I. Henry Phillips
Born
Irving Henry Webster Phillips Sr.

(1920-01-16)January 16, 1920
DiedNovember 22, 1993(1993-11-22) (aged 73)
Baltimore, Maryland
Other namesI. Henry Phillips
OccupationPhotojournalist
EmployerThe Baltimore Afro-American

Irving Henry Webster Phillips Sr. (January 16, 1920 – November 22, 1993), was an African American photojournalist from Baltimore, Maryland.

Life and career

In the summer of 1946, after serving in the European and African theatres of World War II, he became chief photographer at the Baltimore Afro-American, one of the nation's leading Black newspaper. He held this job, overseeing seven other photojournalists, till his retirement in 1972.[1][2][3] Phillips Sr. covered local and national news events such as the 1963 March on Washington, five presidential elections, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral, as well as taking photos of celebrities such as Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington and documenting ordinary Black lives in Baltimore.[2][3][4] After retiring from the newspaper, Phillips took photographs for the NAACP. He died at Baltimore's Union Memorial Hospital on November 22, 1993, at the age of 73.[1]

Legacy

Phillips' son and grandson followed in his footsteps, with his son working as a staff photographer for The Baltimore Sun in the 1970s and 1980s.[1] In 1999, Maryland Public Television broadcast Images of Maryland, 1900–2000, a documentary film that featured a 10-minute segment on Phillips Sr.[5] In 2018, Baltimore City Hall hosted an exhibit of photos from the Phillips family archive, spanning the work of all three generations.[1] From December 2025 to February 2026, Phillips' photos of Baltimore’s Black workers and business owners were featured in an exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Industry, co-curated by his grandson, Webster Phillips.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Kaltenbach, Chris. "For the Phillips family, 70 years of capturing Baltimore's African-American experience". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2018-03-12.
  2. ^ a b "Rites in Baltimore for I. Henry Phillips, 73, Afro-American News Photog". Jet. 85 (9): 16–17. December 27, 1993. ISSN 0021-5996. Retrieved 2025-09-22 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ a b McCauley, Mary Carole (March 30, 2018). "On the front lines: Baltimore photographers recall documenting 1968 riots". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
  4. ^ February 2020, Ron Cassie | (2020-02-05). "Picture This". Baltimore Magazine. Retrieved 2025-09-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Baltimore Photographer I. Henry Phillips Sr. 1999. Retrieved 2025-09-23 – via YouTube.
  6. ^ "The Daily Hustle: The Photographs of I. Henry Phillips, Sr". Baltimore Museum of Industry. December 2025. Retrieved 2025-09-23.