With portraits of elegant women, handsome men, and adorable children, including “French Connection” actor Alan Weeks who made his Broadway debut at the age of 10 in the 1958 musical comedy “The Body Beautiful.”

The montaged pages, typical of headshots at the time, were created to show off the range or versatility of the model. One sheet shows a woman in elegant evening wear and also a fun summer swimsuit. Another shows a man in a formal sports coat in one shot, as well as “casually” holding a tennis racket. Many contain the models name, measurements, and other information printed in negative or stamped or written on verso. Some of the models’ photos have been cut from the sheets, likely because they were sent to casting directors or kept as reference after an audition.

Ophelia Devore (1922-2014) was an American businesswoman, newspaper editor, model, and pioneer in the “Black is Beautiful” movement. While she found some early success as a model, primarily for Ebony, she was frustrated by industry’s lack of opportunity, discrimination, and outright racism toward people of color so in 1946 she founded the The Grace Del Marco Agency along with four others (Marco being an acronym for the 5 founders’ names). The agency represented numerous notable Black performers and models such as Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson, Richard Roundtree, Gail Fisher, and Helen Williams. Devore went on to open a charm school and later took over the Columbus Times, a daily newspaper for the Black community of Columbus, GA. As per her 2014 New York Times obituary, Devore “almost single-handedly opened the modeling profession to African-Americans, and in doing so expanded public understanding of what American beauty looks like.”