About This Collection

This collection consists primarily of black-and-white photographs taken by Mr. William L. Clement, District Conservationist for the United States Soil Conservation Service in Cannon County, Tennessee from 1950 to the mid-1970s. Mr. Clement was a capable and consistent photographer of all aspects of his work in Cannon County. He carefully depicted the farmers who worked the land, the land itself, the crops that were grown and the equipment that was used. In the process he frequently captured images of home and community life and of the changing landscape of the county.

More than 400 images are included in the collection. The earliest is dated 1944 and latest is dated 1973, rounding out three full decades. Most were taken by Mr. Clement but nine were taken during the 1940s by his predecessors and others were taken by his assistants, often with Mr. Clement as a subject. These 400 were selected from more than 1000 images that were given by Mr. Clement to the Arts Center of Cannon County. The images that are not included were duplicates or near duplicates of those that were. The entire collection of prints has been placed on deposit with the Albert Gore Research Center at MTSU.

This collection would be visually interesting if we only had the images, but Mr. Clement was also meticulous in recording dates, names and subject matter on the back of each one. This gives us an unusually detailed record of the daily projects of a District Conservationist and reveals to us the evolving practices of his agency. It also documents the names and faces of more than 100 farmers and the approximate locations of their farms. The photographer’s notes for each photograph have been transcribed in full in each record.