The collection is arranged in nine series:

Series I: Doris Ulmann Correspondence

This series includes correspondence related to inquiries and trips to Berea College.  The primary correspondents are Ulmann, John Jacob Niles, and Allen Eaton.  Documents are dated 1930-1934

Series II: Ulmann Will and Bequest

This series is comprised of correspondence related to the death of Ms. Ulmann and legal documents concerning the disposition of her estate. Documents are dated 1934-1936.

Series III: Ulmann Foundation

The organizational and legal papers of the Doris Ulmann Foundation, including minutes and treasury reports, are included in this series.  Documents are dated 1935-1968.

Series IV: Ulmann Photographs Correspondence

This series includes letters, dating from 1935 through the 1980’s, concerning the disposition and administration of the Ulmann negatives and prints.

Series V: Clippings and Articles

This series is comprised of newspaper clippings and magazine articles relating to Doris Ulmann’s life and career.  Dated 1930-1976.

Series VI: Commentary on the Ulmann Photographs

This series consists of an audiotape of a 1991 lecture by Professor Lester Pross on Ulmann’s oeuvre.

Series VII: Slides of Ulmann Prints

This series is comprised of 113 slides of Ulmann prints taken by Berea art professor Greg Spaid for classroom use.

Series VIII:  Ulmann Copy Negatives Listings

This series includes a printout of the Art Department’s database, with brief description of each photo, its condition, and its identifying number.  Both a detailed description by John Jacob Niles and Rena Niles of some of the photographed subjects and a list of the copy negatives housed in Special Collections by identification number are included in the series.

Series IX: Prints, Snapshots, and Copy Negatives

This series is comprised of six snapshots of Ulmann at work and glossy prints of five of her photos. The bulk of the series consists of seven boxes of copy negatives, administered through the Berea College Art Collection by the Doris Ulmann Foundation.

Doris Ulmann was born in New York City in 1884.  She attended the School of Ethical Culture at Columbia University and later studied photography at the Clarence H. White School of Photography.  She married and divorced Charles H. Jaeger, a prominent orthopedic surgeon.

Ulmann’s published works include Portraits of the Medical Faculty of the John Hopkins University (1922), A Portrait of American Editors (1925), Roll, Jordan, Roll (1933) text by Julia Peterkin, and Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands (1937), text by Allen Eaton).  In 1971 the Jargon Society published The Appalachian Photographs of Doris Ulmann, with a remembrance by John Jacob Niles, a folklorist and ballad collector who accompanied Ulmann on her trips through the Southern Appalachians. Ulmann’s photographic portraits of southern Appalachian people, taken in the late 1920s and early 1930s, are classics.  During her time in the mountains, Ulmann showed a special fondness for the John C. Campbell Folk School and Berea College, and portraits of students and people from these two areas are found in her collection.

Ulmann died in New York City on August 28, 1934.   Her will and bequest established the Doris Ulmann Foundation.