Frank W. Robertson

Photograph of Frank W. Robertson taken by Rufus W. Holsinger at an unknown date. Reproduced from the Holsinger Studio Portrait Project.

Frank W. Robertson (b. 1893) was a Black individual originally from Albemarle County whose portrait photograph forms a part of the Holsinger Studio Collection.

Biography

Robertson was born in North Garden in 1893. His parents, John and Mary Robertson (a manual laborer and washwoman respectively), owned a small farm in the area. By the time he registered for the World War I draft, he had moved to White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia, where he worked as an attendant at The Greenbrier resort.

At an unknown date, Robertson was photographed in his military uniform by Rufus W. Holsinger. This photograph was included within the Holsinger Studio Collection and was later prominently featured in the “Visions of Progress: Portraits of Dignity, Style and Racial Uplift” exhibit of Holsinger's photographs that was on display at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library from 2022-2023.

In the late 1910's, Robertson moved to the vicinity of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he worked first as a manual laborer and later as a grocery store clerk.

Robertson died at an unknown date.