In African-American communities in the early 20th century, "picture-taking men" were summoned to photograph special occasions. Some gained wide acclaim. From the late 1930s to the late 1960s Philadelphia's John W. Mosley took more than 300,000 images, and, by extension, he captured the breadth of a turbulent and promising time for black people. His vast portfolio was given by relatives to Charles Blockson in the 1990s for inclusion in Temple University’s Charles L. Blockson Collection, one of the nation's leading research facilities for the study of the history and culture of people of African descent.