A brand new collection of photographs offers a unique view of live for African Americans over the past two centuries. Tamara Lindstrom has more on the moments, great and small, captured in the photos.

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ITHACA, N.Y. -- The scenes frozen in black and white present a rare glimpse of times gone by.

"It's something we take for granted now because everyone everywhere takes images," said Lance Heidig, Outreach and Learning Services Librarian at Cornell University. "I mean, your phone is now your camera."

But now, nearly 2,000 images collected by Cornell Law graduate Stephan Loewentheil and donated to the university help string together missing pieces of history.

"This particular collection is really important because it has photos from the time of slavery up through the civil rights movement. Many different pictures of African Americans," said Brenda Marston, director of research services at Olin Library.

On display are some iconic photos.

"Martin Luther King standing next to Jesse Jackson the day before he was assassinated," Marston described.

And more obscure scenes, like the activist nursing his foot on the march from Selma to Montgomery.

"These really show the moments of what the civil rights activists had to put up with," Marston said.

The collection brings to light some rarely seen images of important players in the civil rights movement, but also offers a glimpse into the lives of people who weren't making headlines.

"Farm workers working cotton fields and in front of their log cabins in the years just after slavery," Marston said.

"A boy giving a shoe shine outside a library in an undated photo on Bourbon Street in New Orleans," Heidig said. "Just this little glimpse into everyday life."

Scenes researchers say help fill gaps in American history.

"Especially for African Americans and other people that have been written out of history, essentially, their lives really not part of history," Marston said. "There's something especially important about having photographs."

"And who knows what they're going to be able to find," Heidig said. "And what theories they're going to be able to prove and we'll learn so much more about this time periods and these people."

People no longer forgotten by history.

Some of the photos can be seen at Olin Library on the Cornell campus as part of Black History Month. The exhibit is free and open to the public. It's part of a larger collection of nearly 16,000 photos.

For more information, visit rmc.library.cornell.edu.