The Mayme C. Netherland Photograph Collection includes 41 photographs of friends and family of Mayme C. Netherland. Included in the collection are circa 1880s-1900s tin-type portraits and cabinet card portraits of African American women and men, as well as photographs of Netherland’s grandfather, father and husbands.

Mayme (Mary) C. Netherland (1877-1973) was born to Oscar Thomas Jackson and Mary Ellen Jackson (née Scott) in Oakland, California. Her maternal grandfather, John Scott (1815-1916), was born a slave in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. At the age of 23, he escaped and joined a band of Cherokee Indians. During this time, he helped other slaves escape along the Underground Railroad. After two years of freedom, Scott was caught and sold to Lieutenant Hoskins of the U.S. Army. Scott served alongside Hoskins in the Mexican-American War and was a member of John C. Fremont’s 1844 expedition to California. At the end of the expedition, Scott escaped again and found a rich gold mine in Calaveras County. However, Scott as an African American could not hold the property under existing laws in the 1850s. Two gamblers fought Scott for the property, during which he killed one of them. He fled to Oregon and Utah with a reward on his head, finally returning to California in 1859 to establish a home in Tehama County. There he married and had three children, one of whom was Netherland’s mother, Mary Ellen Jackson. Scott successfully advocated that African American children be allowed to attend public schools in Tehama County. He died in 1916 just before turning 101.

1.25 linear feet (2 boxes + 1 oversize)

Permission to publish from the Mayme C. Netherland Collection must be obtained from the African American Museum and Library at Oakland.

No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.