Reproduced prints of photographs originally taken by J. Thomas Forrest between 1965-1988 documenting Greenville, North Carolina. Featured are aerial and ground-level views of Greenville's central business district, including construction undertaken by the Greenville Redevelopment Commission; Old Austin Building at East Carolina University; and aspects of the operation of the Daily Reflector.
J. Thomas Forrest was born in Greenville, North Carolina on 25 February 1949. Forrest is a 1967 graduate of J. H. Rose High School, Greenville, N.C., where he served as School Photographer and operator of the school sound system during events). He joined the Daily Reflector newspaper in 1965 and worked there for 28 years as the chief photographer. Forrest attended courses at Pitt Community College in Architectural Design and Graphic Arts 1969-1971. In 1976 he received a General Class, amateur Radio License. While working for the Daily Reflector Forrest received numerous photography awards and citations. He ran the first color offset pages for the newspaper. His work is featured in publications such as: Our State and North Carolina Signature. In 1992 Forrest and his family moved to Greensboro, N.C., where he worked for the Jamestown News (1994-1996) and High Point Enterprise (1995-1999). While still in Greenville, he started Forrest Photography where he specialized in developing techniques for copying and restoring antique photographs. He added graphics to his business in 1994 and the business is called Forrest Photography and Graphics. He has served as editor of Guilford Neighbors Magazine. From 1989 to 1992 he was Chief Ophthalmic Photographer for the White Ophthalmology Clinic (Greenville, N.C.).
The J. Forrest Thomas Photograph Collection consists of photographs taken by J. Thomas Forrest between 1967-1988 documenting Greenville, North Carolina. Forrest, who was at that time chief photographer for the Greenville Daily Reflector newspaper, documented the central business district and various buildings and scenes, including aerial, ground level, and interior views, of Greenville, North Carolina. Notable images include Park Theater, the Old Austin Building at East Carolina University, construction in the former Shore Drive area undertaken by the Greenville Redevelopment Commission, Pitt County Memorial Hospital, aspects of the process of printing the Daily Reflector newspaper in Greenville, downtown Greenville, and the Evans Street Mall.
The collection does not contain the original photographs. The photographs included were reproduced from digital files in TIFF and JPEG format made by Forrest in 2006 from the originals and stored on a compact disc. Access copies are also available within our Digital Collections repository.
Gift of J. Thomas Forrest, 2/11/2011
Arranged, described, inventoried, and finding aid by Ralph L. Scott, 4/23/2012; revised and encoded by Jonathan Dembo, 11/16/2012; revised by John Dunning 11/22/2023.
Images may be made available to the public for enjoyment and study, but permission to publish the images must be requested from the donor during his lifetime; thereafter, the library may make these images freely available for publication.
Digital photographs originally donated are in TIFF and JPEG format. Access copies have been made available in our Digital Collections repository.