Olive Pierce (1925-2016) was a documentary photographer based in Massachusetts and Maine. The collection comprises several hundred black-and-white photographic prints taken by Pierce over her long career. The earliest images (1960s) feature landscapes and individuals in Maine, a subject Pierce returned to throughout her life. Other subjects include: political protests in Cambridge, Massachusetts and life in the Jefferson Park neighborhood in Cambridge during the 1970s; high school students in Cambridge (1980s); the lives of Iraqi children in war zones in 1999 and 2003, and protests in the U.S. against that war.
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| Student life in the 1980s taken by Olive Pierce |
Also included are print publications featuring Pierce's photographs; publicity for exhibits and lectures; Pierce’s 1987 guide to teaching photography; a video on DVD and audio lecture about her work; some correspondence; unpublished book mock-ups and a memoir/diary; a self-published illustrated partial memoir (2014); approximately 2557 film negatives; and about 40 slides featuring images of her early life and family. Acquired by the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.
This series from Cambridge Room at the Cambridge Public Library contains photographs that Olive Pierce took during her tenure as the photography teacher at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. For three years, she photographed students and the resulting work was published in No Easy Roses: A Look at the Lives of City Teenagers (1986).
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| Women in bathing suits wait outside a locker room |
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| Two teenagers smoking against wall |
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| Basketball game |
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| Basketball game |
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| Boy holding a small wooden construction above his head |
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| Boy in Queen t-shirt in classroom |
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| Boy painting a window frame |
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| Candid view of two teenagers in a high school room with tables and chairs |
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| Carpenter class |
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| Classroom scene |
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| Classroom scene |
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| Classroom scene |
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| Classroom scene |
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| Classroom scene |
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| Coaching addressing basketball team |
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| Drum major |
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| Group clowning for the camera |
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| High school biology class |
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| High school class |
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| High school computer class |
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| High school drafting class |
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| High school girls' room |
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| High school girls' softball |
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| High school hallway |
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| High school, first day, freshman year |
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| Large group of students laughing |
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| Man leaning on a boxing heavy bag |
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| Portrait of Ho Bachtran |
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| Portrait of teenage girl |
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| Portrait of three students |
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| Portrait of three teenagers |
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| Portrait of three teenagers |
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| School nurse examining a student |
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| Six teenagers in a classroom |
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| Student applying makeup in mirror |
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| Student in boxing gloves |
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| Student in the gym |
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| Student mopping cafeteria kitchen |
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| Student on field |
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| Student with shop machine |
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| Student working as food server |
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| Students and teacher posing in mechanical room |
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| Students at funeral |
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| Students cheering in school gym |
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| Students cheering |
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| Students clowning in a school hallway |
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| Students hanging out outside school |
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| Students in school hallway |
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| Students in school hallway |
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| Students socializing in a bathroom |
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| Students working in photo lab |
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| Teacher addressing a student in a hallway |
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| Teacher and student in classroom |
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| Teacher and student in classroom |
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| Teacher scolding a student in carpenter class |
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| Teenage boy posing in front of ornate door |
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| Three students in theater costumes |
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| Three students standing outside photography room |
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| Two basketball players in the locker room |
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| Two drummers |
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| Two students clowning by the hall lockers |
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| Two students dissecting a frog |
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| Two students in a stairwell |
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| Two students laughing |
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| Two students posing in school hallway |
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| Two students sitting in a school office |
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| Two students smiling |
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| Two teenage girls hold up a third cheering teenage girl |
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| Two teenagers in a makeshift gym |
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| View into courtyard from above |
(Photo © Olive Pierce)