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Photography Collections Database

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There are more than five million objects in the Harry Ransom Center's Photography Collection. Many records contain legacy descriptions. A review and update of our records is ongoing.

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Call Number:

PH-00090

Collection Name:

Michael A. Murphy and Bill Kennedy Photography Collection

Creator:

Kennedy, Bill, 7 Apr. 1951 (1951 - )

Murphy, Michael Allen (1952 - )

No. of Items:

118 photographs

Span Dates:

1976-1981

Description:

Michael A. Murphy (American, born 1952) and Bill Kennedy are Austin, Texas, based commercial photographers. For a period of time they worked together documenting the prison rodeo of the Walls Unit of the Texas prison system in Huntsville, the Ellis Farm Unit of the Texas prison system, and the daily life of two inmates, Willie Craig and Weldon Byrd, during 1976 and 1977. An exhibition from this body of work, entitled The Texas Prison Rodeo, was put on by the Texas Association of Museums in 1984. The collection contains 106 silver gelatin prints specifically from this exhibition. The collection also contains six gelatin silver prints of Craig and Byrd taken during the opening of the exhibition. Also included are six gelatin silver prints from a series entitled Weldon Byrd’s Parole, that were printed and stamped by Murphy in 1981.

Accession No(s):

984:0017:0001-0106 -- Gift, 1984 (G 1991).; 984:0017:0001-0106; 984:0030:0001-0006; 984:0060:0001-0006; 984:0030:0001-0006 -- Gift, 1984; 984:0060:0001-0006 -- Acquisition information unavailable

Location(s):

Murphy & Kennedy, Box 1 (984:0017:0001-0015)
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Murphy & Kennedy, Box 2 (984:0017:0016-0030)
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Murphy & Kennedy, Box 3 (984:0017:0031-0045)
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Murphy & Kennedy, Box 4 (984:0017:0046-0060)
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Murphy & Kennedy, Box 5 (984:0017:0061-0075)
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Murphy & Kennedy, Box 6 (984:0017:0076-0090)
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Murphy & Kennedy, Box 7 (984:0017:0091-0106)
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Murphy & Kennedy, Box 8 (984:0030:0001-0006; 984:0060:0001-0006)
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See Also:

Postcards and Greeting Cards from Various Photographers Collection: Two greeting cards (986:0007:0014-0015) by one or both of the artists are located in the Postcards and Greeting Cards from Various Photographers Collection (PH-00236).

Texas Sesquicentennial Project Photography Collection (a.k.a. Texas Historical Foundation Collection): Additional works by Michael A. Murphy are located in the Texas Sesquicentennial Project Photography Collection (PH-00275)