Erik Overbey Gallery

Erik Overbey was a Norwegian immigrant who settled in Mobile and contributed a lasting record of the city’s heritage through his photography. He was Mobile’s foremost photographer from the early twentieth century to 1957, with a studio on Dauphin Street, and primarily focused on portraiture. Overbey occasionally took commissions from industry for photographic series as well and sold some images to the Mobile Register in the 1920s and 1930s.

Christmas Parade

Christmas Parade

Preparedness Rally

Preparedness Rally

Ship's Crew

Ship's Crew

Masked Mobilians

Masked Mobilians

Mardi Gras Revelers

Mardi Gras Revelers

Buccaneer Yacht Club

Buccaneer Yacht Club

Atlanta Life Insurance Staff

Atlanta Life Insurance Staff

The <em>Sunny South</em>

The Sunny South

Dauphin Street

Dauphin Street

Christmas Parade

A 1927 Christmas parade in Mobile photographed by Erik Overbey.

Courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama
Christmas Parade

Preparedness Rally

In this July 4, 1916, Erik Overbey photo, Mobilians ready themselves for United States involvement in World War I with a preparedness rally.

Courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama
Preparedness Rally

Ship’s Crew

Mobile has always been a cosmopolitan city made up of diverse peoples, largely because of its status as a port city. Here, a ship's crew poses in their engine room.

Courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Ship’s Crew

Masked Mobilians

A group of masked Mobilians pose during a Mardi Gras event in the 1930s.

Courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Masked Mobilians

Mardi Gras Revelers

Erik Overbey's portrait of two unidentified Mardi Gras revelers.

Courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama
Mardi Gras Revelers

Buccaneer Yacht Club

Members of the Buccaneer Yacht Club enjoy a leisurely trip into Mobile Bay near the Arlington Docks in this 1935 photo by Erik Overbey.

Courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama
Buccaneer Yacht Club

Atlanta Life Insurance Staff

Mobile-based photographer Erik Overbey made a significant portion of his income through portraiture in the Southeast. This photo features the staff of the Mobile office of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, founded in 1922 by Alonzo Herndon, a formerly enslaved barber who became the richest African American of his day.

Courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama
Atlanta Life Insurance Staff

The Sunny South

The Sunny South steamboat, shown here in a circa 1914 photo by Erik Overbey, made runs up the Tombigbee River in the early twentieth century and capsized in Mobile Bay in 1916.

Courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama
The Sunny South

Dauphin Street

Dauphin Street between Conception Street and Joachim Street in Mobile lit up for the holidays, c. 1940 by Erik Overbey.

Courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama
Dauphin Street
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