This remarkable collection of period photographs details day-to-day life and changing times in the Deep South.

Draffus Lamar Hightower, 1899-1993, spent most of his life in Barbour County, Alabama. For many years he was the owner of a Chevrolet dealership, but he had another occupation as well. From his youth, he was fascinated with photography, and for fifty years he experimented with the craft both technically and artistically.

Hightower, while participating fully in the 20th century, was also acutely aware of the passing of the heritage of the last one. From the early 1920s to the...