25-year Club member Jim Wallace, Smithsonian photography chief, dies at 77

James H. Wallace, a 25-year member of the National Press Club and former director of Curator and Photographic Services at the Smithsonian Institution, died at his home in Melbourne, Fla., June 14.

Wallace served several years as vice chair of the Club’s Photography Committee and assisted the Club in its transition to the digital world. He received several Vivian Awards for his service to the Club.

At the Smithsonian, where he was employed for 29 years, his photos of the 1960s civil rights struggle in the South are a significant contribution to the institution’s National Museum of African History and Culture.   He photographed the March on Washington in August 1963, and authored a book of which he was proud, “Courage in the Moment: the Civil Rights Struggle, 1961-64.”

He also was author of articles on photography in several publications, many dealing with his expertise in archival preservation of photographic materials.

Prior to his Smithsonian career, Wallace worked on newspapers in the South and was a public information officer in the Air Force.

He is survived by his wife Joleen, a son James Wallace III, and a daughter Maris Keither. His son carries on his father’s tradition at the Richmond, Va. Times-Dispatch, where he photographed protests in Richmond June 2.

Wallace was a long-time resident of Falls Church, Va., before moving in retirement with Joleen to Florida. There he and Joleen enjoyed photographing wildlife in the Everglades and local birds, photos of which often appeared in NPC’s annual  photography exhibitions.