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Slavery & Abolition
1
william & samuel hinde.
Letter from a British slave-trading firm in the waning days of the legal slave trade.
Liverpool, England, 18 August 1806
Autograph Letter Signed to P.M. Lucas & Co. in St. Vincent. 3 pages, 10 x 8 inches, on one folding sheet, with address panel and docketing on final blank; folds, seal tear slightly affecting text, 1½-inch closed tear. With typed transcript.
Brothers William Hinde (1773-1834) and Samuel Hinde (1778-1840) of Liverpool were sons of notorious slave trader Thomas Hinde, and as this letter shows, continued to pursue those profits after their father’s 1799 death until the bitter end. This letter is addressed to their agent in the Caribbean. They quote their own 14 July letter advising him that “you will be able to effect advantageous sales, either there or at Tobago, where slaves are much liked. The late measures adopted by the legislature here for limiting the numbers of ships employed in the trade to those already engaged in it, and the pledge entered into by both houses to abolish the trade next sessions, are circumstances which in our opinion must tend to advance the prices with you.”
Still waiting for a reply, they clarified their instructions a month later. They urged Lucas to bring home “the ship to this port with quick dispatch, in order that we may get her cleared if possible on another voyage prior to the Act of Abolition being passed. It is of great consequence in a new and burthensome vessell like the Trafalgar that she should have a full freight” or “she will not make one farthing, owing to the very heavy expences on new ships, and the high rate of insurance paid on African risques.”
The Slave Trade Act would indeed be passed in March 1807, banning any British ship from leaving on a slaving voyage after 1 May. This letter shows that the brothers Hinde were eager to squeeze every last drop of profit from this trade before it became illegal.
Estimate
$600 – $900
2
Narrative of Sojourner Truth, a Northern Slave, Emancipated from Bodily Servitude.
Boston: Printed for the author, 1850
Full-page portrait on page [2]. 144 pages. 12mo, publisher’s gilt cloth by William Ulman of Boston (small embossed stamp), front board damaged, otherwise minor wear; foxing; later library stamp and owner’s signature on front free endpaper.
First edition of the book which brought her story to the world, as edited by her friend Olive Gilbert. Afro-Americana 10462; Howes G163.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
3
Walker evans, child’s grave with bottles and jars on plot, hale county, alabama.
Slavery in the United States: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball, a Black Man.
Lewistown, PA, 1836
400 pages. Large 12mo, contemporary calf, moderate wear, front joint split; toning and moderate wear to contents, including loss of top corner of pages 149-150 affecting two lines of text, lacking rear flyleaf and rear free endpaper.
First edition of a narrative which has since been reprinted under several different titles. It covers about forty years of Ball’s life and escapes under several masters, in addition to service in the United States Navy in 1798 (as a hired cook) and 1813. His early years were spent in Maryland, and he was sold to a yet harsher life on a cotton plantation in South Carolina in 1805. The 1837 second edition explains that the narrative was compiled by Isaac Fisher from Ball’s verbal narrative. Afro-Americana 813; Work, pages 310-311.
Estimate
$600 – $900
4
Narrative of Andrew Jackson, of Kentucky; Containing . . . Twenty-Six Years of his Life while a Slave.
Syracuse, NY: Liberty Intelligencer Office, 1846
36 pages. 12mo, stitched; leaves C1 and C6 (final leaf) in facsimile, moderate foxing, minor dampstaining, minor wear to top corner affecting only early owner’s inscription, other minor wear.
First edition. This Andrew Jackson (most definitely not the president) was legally born free to an enslaved father and a free mother in Kentucky, but was nonetheless raised in slavery and did field work until his eventual escape as a young man. He made his way to Wisconsin and did some lecturing for the abolitionist cause. This memoir was “narrated by himself, written by a friend,” and concludes with 3 abolitionist “Songs of Freedom” by other authors. The friend was likely John N.T. Tucker, an author, newspaperman and abolitionist activist who was a Syracuse resident at the time. The Preface is signed “T”, and one of the poems, titled Fugitive’s Triumph, is by “J.N.T.T.”
Sabin 35392 and Work, page 312 (both noting only the 1847 edition); not in Afro-Americana or Blockson; see also Jackson’s entry in the Kentucky African American Encyclopedia. Only one in OCLC (State Library of Pennsylvania, in worse condition than this one), and none traced at auction; a much longer 1847 second edition (“Narrative and Writings”) followed.
Estimate
$600 – $900
5
[theodore d. weld; editor.]
American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses.
New York, 1839
224 pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers, moderate wear; minor wear and toning; early owner’s signature on front wrapper.
First edition of an enormously influential anti-slavery pamphlet, filled with thousands of eyewitness quotations on the cruelty of the institution. Harriet Beecher Stowe kept a copy constantly by her side while writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This is the issue without the “Anti-Slavery Examiner No. 10” heading (priority undetermined). Afro-Americana 11053; Blockson 9148; Sabin 102547.
Estimate
$600 – $900
6
Designers unknown, pennsylvania game commission.
Running account for a physician’s work on the enslaved people at a central Alabama cotton plantation.
Autauga County, AL, 30 January 1844
Manuscript document, 12¼ x 7¼ inches, signed by payee and a Justice of the Peace; folds, minor wear and soiling, excised from volume along one edge.
Colonel John McNeil (circa 1780s-December 1843) owned cotton plantations in Autauga and Coosa Counties, Alabama. He was listed in the 1840 census for Nixburg, Coosa County as a man in his 50s with one younger white woman (apparently his orphaned niece) and 46 enslaved people. We can thus safely assume that the many patients named in this account were enslaved rather than family members. Dr. Joseph H. Vincent made 34 visits to the plantation between May and November 1843, before the Colonel’s sudden death on 7 December. These visits are listed in excruciating detail: “opening abcess for boy,” “blister plaster for Jaque,” “drawing tooth for negro,” “fitting truss on Silas,” and more. The “bill to treatment of gonorrhea” may have been for the colonel, though. The running account was written in a ledger book, but cut out and submitted to the estate for payment, which was settled on 30 January 1844, when it was docketed on the second page.
Estimate
$600 – $900
7
[mcpherson & oliver; photographers.]
[The Scourged Back.]
Np, circa 1863
Albumen photograph, 3½ x 2 inches, on original plain mount without any publisher’s mark; minor wear.
A second-generation print of one of the most iconic images of slavery. After repeated beating and whippings at a Louisiana plantation, Gordon escaped from slavery and made his way to a Union camp at Baton Rouge, where he joined the army as a private. A camp photographer took a series of photographs which graphically demonstrated the brutality he had endured. The present photograph was the best known. It was engraved for the 4 July 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly, where it ran over the caption “Gordon Under Medical Inspection.”
This example seems to be copied from one printed by Chandler Seaver in Boston, as the original mount with double-ruled border can be seen in the photograph, above a caption repeated from the verso of Seaver’s version, as seen at the National Gallery of Art: “Copy of a photograph taken from life at Baton Rouge, La. April 2 1863.”
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
8
david mathews.
Deed of a newborn girl sold by the future mayor of New York.
New York, 29 November 1770
Autograph Document Signed by Mathews as grantor with his wax seal, also signed by witness Amy Smith. One page, 8 x 6½ inches, plus half of an integral blank, the remainder being excised; moderate wear and foxing, short tape repair.
This deed reads in part “I David Mathews of the city of New York, attorney at law as well for and in consideration of the sum of five shillings . . . do give and grant unto Joseph Meeks of the said city cartman a certain female negro child named Dinah aged seven days.”
Much is known about David Mathews (1739-1800), who soon after this 1770 deed became a notorious Loyalist upon the outbreak of the American Revolution. He was arrested by the rebels in 1776 for his involvement in a plot to assassinate George Washington, escaped, and was soon appointed mayor of British-held Manhattan. He fled to Canada in 1783 at the conclusion of the war.
On the other hand, nothing else is known of Dinah, who was sold to a laborer when just a week old.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
9
Inventory of the estate of a wealthy New Jersey man, including 6 named “Blacks.”
Monmouth County, NJ, 27 December 1817
Contemporary manuscript copy signed by Caleb Mayo of the Surrogate Court. 7 pages plus docketing on final blank, 12¾ x 7¾ inches, on 2 folding sheets, stitched; moderate water damage and wear.
Rulef Van Meter (1738-1817), whose extensive estate is listed here, was apparently an affluent man, but his single most valuable asset was Bob, valued at $300. The other “Blacks” listed on page 4 were Robin ($10), Jude ($125), Dinah ($50), Carline ($30), and Sam ($50). In the room-by-room inventory, they were listed in the section headed “Kitchen Furniture,” followed by “9 common Windsor chairs” and a small table.
New Jersey passed a “Gradual Abolition Act” in 1804, but it was even more gradual than in most northern states. The state’s 16 final remaining enslaved people were freed by the 13th Amendment in 1865.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
10
Papers of slaveowner John W. Luke of Berryville, Virginia.
Vp, bulk 1841-1865
108 manuscript documents in one box; various sizes and conditions.
John Whelan Luke (1815-1896) was a local politician, militia major, and church elder in the town of Berryville in Clarke County, at the northern tip of Virginia. He served in the Virginia legislature in 1852. Numerous letters and documents in his papers relate to enslaved people. A neighbor named E.C. Stephenson requests in 1841 “to look out for some servants for hire, two or three men & if you here of a good woman let us know before the hireing takes place.” Several of these hire receipts and agreements are offered here. In 1846, Luke received payment from H.L. Opie for “the price agreed upon for servants Emily & Mary.” In 1847, Madison Galloway agreed to pay “for hire of servant Mary for the entire year,” and in 1857 James Frazier agreed to pay for “twenty dollars for hire of girl Mary for the ensuing year.” Both agreements spell out the clothing which the lessee must provide to Mary for the year. Luke’s 1850 tax bill includes fees on “9 slaves.” A running account with a local physician includes fees for medicine and vaccination for “Negro girl,” “Man Thomas,” “Negro man” and “Negro girl” from 1862 to 1864; Luke did not settle the bill until 1867.
A long 1841 inventory of the estate of Jacob Luke includes valuations for “servant Milly & child Lucy, Adaline, Horrace, Violate, and Nestor.” The 1846 auction results from the estate of Peter Luke list new owners for “One negrow man Fortune,” a boy named Rowley, a woman named Let and her child, and an unnamed “Negrow woman, two children.” An account with a local shoemaker shows several shoes made for unnamed servants among the family members in 1862 and 1863. A 7 February 1852 letter from a townsman while Luke served in the state legislature urges him: “If there is any chance for the removal of the free Negroes from the state, and a tax on dogs in Clarke County, do advocate it.” A school essay by a young relative named James William Luke is titled “Civilization,” and begins “The only people in the world that are civilization are Caucassians. There has been no other that has reached the hight of civilization.”
Very few of the papers in this collection are dated after the war. One exception is an 1881 letter to the “Long Marsh District School Board” from George L. D. Harris of Berryville. He explains that “Having taught the colored school in Louisville for successive seasons under your administration, I herein apply for the same this ensuing year.” Harris’s teaching certificate and examination results are enclosed. Harris appears in the 1900 census as a Black school teacher in Clarke County.
Beyond the slavery-related content, the collection may have some philatelic interest, featuring early manuscript postmarks from Allensville, KY (5 dated 1844-48) and Castleman’s Ferry, VA (3 dated 1852-53). Local politics are also a strong point, as well as a few documents from the Berryville and Charleston Turnpike Road.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
11
james a. barr.
Letter discussing an enslaved 34-year-old “boy” who “seems anxious that you buy him.”
Wetumpka, AL, 29 November 1854
Autograph Letter Signed to Daniel Crawford [of Nixburg, Coosa County, AL?]. 2 pages, 9¾ x 7¾ inches; folds, lacking integral blank.
“My boy Virgil seems anxious that you buy him. . . . The boy is sound & healthy, a spritly man, the best trained man for business I ever have had, and I think a good carpenter. He can make a good panel doore & good floore, do good shingling, seal & finish of a house well. . . . He says he has allways worked under a boss, but when he com to a pease of timber lade off rong, he could detect it. . . . He is honest & truthfull. . . . Before I bought him he was in the habit of drinking two much. . . . If you want him, you can rite me to Tuskegee, Macon Co., Ala., & I will give him a pass & send him to you at $1500 for him & his tools. . . . I do think he is one of the best servants I ever owned. He will be 34 years old in the spring.”
We cannot trace the fate of this master carpenter with certainty, but he might well be the Virgil Ferduson, 51, Black, carpenter, who appears in the 1870 census as a resident of Greenville, AL.
Estimate
$500 – $750
12
Negroes to be Sold! . . . Twenty-Two Likely Negroes.
[North Carolina], 16 March 1860
Letterpress broadside, 14¼ x 12 inches, signed in type by Thomas Williams and David Froneberger as commissioners; dampstaining in one corner, tears at corners where removed from wall, folds, ink and pencil notes relating to unrelated 1859 transaction, moderate foxing.
Announces an auction to be held on 10 April of “Twenty-Two Likely Negroes, Four Men, and Seven Boys, Five Women, and Six Girls, Only one of the men is over 35 years of age; only one woman over 28 years old. Of the Boys and Girls, nine are of ages from five to thirteen years.” They had been the property of Drury Birchett (circa 1800-1860) of Cleveland County, NC, a bachelor described as “eccentric” in a later newspaper profile (Cleveland Star, 17 January 1922), who was listed with 13 slaves in the 1850 census. No other examples traced.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
13
Adolf dehn, group of 3 lithographs.
Stereoview of the infamous slave pen of “Price, Birch & Co., Dealers in Slaves.”
Hartford, CT: Taylor & Huntington, circa 1890s (printed from a circa 1864 negative)
Pair of albumen photographs, 3 x 3 inches, on original 4 x 7-inch printed mount; minor wear, 2 very faint vertical creases, “No. 139” in ink on mount recto.
This stereoview depicts 1315 Duke Street in Alexandria, VA, which in 1828 became Franklin & Armfield, one of the largest slave-trading firms in the United States. Many thousands of enslaved people passed through these doors en route from Virginia to New Orleans and the booming cotton fields of the deep south. In 1858, the business was taken over by “Price, Birch & Co., Dealers in Slaves.” James H. Birch, one of the partners, was a veteran Washington slave trader who had played a central role in the horrific kidnapping of Solomon Northrup (Twelve Years a Slave) but was never convicted. The business was evacuated shortly before Union troops took possession of Alexandria in 1861. Today the building is home to the Freedom House Museum.
We don’t know who took this iconic photograph of the Price, Birch & Co. storefront, but the presence of several Black troops posed in front would suggest the closing years of the war. The extensive text on verso states that “more than a quarter of a century has passed away” since the conclusion of the war.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
14
Runaway advertisement for “Marcus, one of the House Servants at Mount Vernon,”
Philadelphia, 21 January 1801
in an issue of the Philadelphia Gazette & Daily Advertiser. 4 pages, 21 x 13 inches, on one folding sheet; stitch holes, 4 small puncture holes not near Mount Vernon text, horizontal fold; uncut.
The very last item in the bottom corner of the final page is an advertisement: “Marcus, one of the House Servants at Mount Vernon, absconded on the second instant, and since has not been heard of. He is a young lad, about 16 years of age, a bright mulatto, dark blue eyes, long black hair, about 5 feet 4 or 5 inches high, and of a slender make. . . . It is very probable he may attempt to pass for one of those negroes that did belong to the late Gen. Washington, and whom Mrs. Washington intends in the fall of this year to liberate. . . . He is one of those negroes which belong to the estate of Washington Custis, Esq., and held by right of dower by Mrs. Washington during her life.” The notice is signed in type by James Anderson, the plantation manager at Mount Vernon.
This issue also includes another slavery-related notice on page 3, offering for sale “a Negro girl, about 12 years of age, has 9 years to serve,” offered by a sea captain whose ship was waiting at the dock.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
15
Runaway slave advertisement illustrated with “A Good Likeness of Sancho,”
Boston, 30 September 1807
in a full issue of the Columbian Centinel. 4 pages, 20¼ x 13½ inches, on one folding sheet; stitch holes, foxing, horizontal fold, ink stain on page 3 not affecting Sancho; uncut.
Sancho escaped from a Mississippi plantation and was presumed to have made his way north. His owner ran this advertisement in distant Boston, offering a reward of up to $100 for his return. Sancho is described as “a Negro man, thirty years of age, about 5 feet high, very black complexion . . . & a fast walker.” Sancho was said to be a skilled barber and “was born and educated in his Master’s house”; he was thought to be so loyal that he must have “been inveigled away by some artful villains for their own use.” Winthrop Sargent (1753-1820), who wrote and submitted the notice, was a Massachusetts native and former Revolutionary War officer who had served as governor of Mississippi Territory and then settled down to operate a plantation in Natchez, MS. While runaway ads were common in newspapers of this era, few were illustrated. This particular ad, which ran for a few days in late September and early October of 1807, is one of the better-known ones. The National Portrait Gallery acquired one, giving Sancho a permanent home among the nation’s most famous faces.
Estimate
$500 – $750
16
Broadside announcing the formation of an “Anti-Negro Stealing Society” to fight the Underground Railroad.
[Jacksonville, IL?], 23 February 1843
Letterpress broadside newspaper extra, 11¾ x 9 inches, with contemporary pencil notes on recto, early inked docketing on verso; folds, foxing, moderate wear; uncut.
This broadside was printed in reaction to a well-known attempted rescue by the Underground Railroad. A Louisiana woman visited for a few days in Jacksonville in west-central Illinois. As she left town, her enslaved woman was liberated by young local abolitionist Samuel Willard, who then passed her off to a succession of other allies, hoping she could escape to Canada. A posse was formed, the girl and her liberators were caught, and bail of $2500 was set.
This newspaper extra prints two documents. First is a short 22 February meeting notice posted for “expressing their feelings in relation to the late outrage committed upon the property of a widow lady.” It is signed in type by 30 townsmen. Pencil notes in the margin offer several corrections to this list based on “names in the original call.” This is followed by the much longer minutes of the next day’s meeting. The incident is recounted in some detail, and the attendees offer several resolutions: “The modus operandi of abating the evils of slavery is not the province of this meeting to point out. We only know that stealing them is not the most honest way. . . . Having reason to believe that there are regular bands of abolitionists, organized with depots and relays of horses to run negroes through our state to Canada, and that one of them is in this town, we will form an Anti-Negro Stealing Society, as we formerly formed an Anti-Horse-Stealing Society, and that we will, in this neighborhood, break up the one as we broke up the other.”
Published in Eames, “Historic Morgan and Classic Jacksonville” pages 143-144. No copies in OCLC, but another copy is cited as being in the Samuel Willard Family Papers at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Doyle’s “Social Order of a Frontier Community,” pages 56-7. A remarkable northern vigilante reaction to the Underground Railroad.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
17
$100 Reward! Ran Away . . . a Small Mulatto Woman Named . . . Caroline Green or Glasgow.
Warrenton, VA, 18 August 1854
Letterpress broadside, 11¾ x 8½ inches; worn with minimal text loss, moderate dampstaining, tape stains in upper corners; later owner’s inscription on verso.
“Said woman is about twenty years old, a bright Mulatto about five feet high, and well set; she has a short nose turned up; a large mouth and bad teeth; long wavy hair.” The owner, Richard Henry Foote (1798-1864), was a very wealthy planter, with almost $200,000 in assets in the 1860 census. None traced in OCLC or elsewhere.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
18
g.w.f. smith.
$200 Reward, Ranaway from the Subscriber . . . My Man Giles.
Warrenton, VA, 13 September 1854
Letterpress broadside, 10 x 8 inches; foxing, partial separation at fold, two areas of loss along fold with minimal loss of text, a bit of pencil underlining, unevenly trimmed.
“He is a pale black negro, about 33 years of age, five feet six or seven inches, small whiskers on the chin, sharp face and mouth, thick lips, very large prominent eyes, and when spoken to answers quickly; has the appearance of deformity about the rump; has been ruptured, and wears a truss.” One other copy traced, at the Library of Virginia.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
19
jasper l. hall.
Letter describing the defeat of slave catchers in a pitched battle with ten fugitives.
Helen, Barbour County, WV, 9 to 13 November 1858
Autograph Letter Signed as “J.L. Hall” to brother James E. Hall of Westerville, Franklin County, OH. 8 pages, 7¾ x 5 inches, on 2 folding sheets; folds, minor foxing. With original stamped hand-cancelled envelope.
This dramatic report of a successful mass escape was written by Jasper Loman Hall (1845-1883), a 13-year-old boy reporting on his own uncle’s near death as one of the would-be captors.
“I told you bout Uncle Nedy Armstrong going after his negroes that ran away. He caught up with them and caught them. When they caught them, he had to shoot them to save his life. He shot three times. The first ball cut the skin of one of the negroes’ forhead. The second ball went through his ear. The third ball missed and the negro stabed him. I am not certain whether he has got them all or not. Whether the stab that Mr. Armstrong got was considered dangerous or not, we have not heard.” Two days later, he continued: “We heard some more of Mr. Armstrong’s case. Him and five others went and caught them . . . all unarmed except Mr. Armstrong, and was taking hold of them, and they refused and commenced fighting, and Mr. Armstrong shot three times (as I stated), and they had him down, and would have killed him, only he called (to his negro) and said ‘Dave, are you going to let them kill me!’ and then Dave took them off. They did not get one of the negroes, but they got the horses. This happened 9 miles below Morgantown. Mr. Armstrong was taken to Morgantown and got his wounds dressed (he was very badly cut and bruised up). I do not know whether he is considered beond reach of recovery or not.”
This dramatic story was reported in several newspapers, The escape featured 10 enslaved people–men, women and children–from 4 different masters in Pruntytown, WV. A 9-person search party caught up with them near Davistown, just over the state line in Pennsylvania, and met with armed resistance. Armstrong was nearly killed by an escapee named Harrison and stopped a death blow from a corn scythe with his bare hand; he was saved only by his own slave Dave, as described in the letter. The escapees were presumed to have reached Canada successfully. See the Spirit of Jefferson (Charles Town, WV), 16 November 1858. The letter has enough differences in the details to suggest that Hall had sources beyond the newspapers, as the central figure, Edward Jones Armstrong (1808-1877), seems to have been his uncle. Armstrong was married to Sophia Rightmire; Jasper’s mother was Harriet Rightmire Hall. The dateline of “Helon” in Barbour County, VA (which soon became part of West Virginia) refers to a post office near Phillippi which is no longer in existence. Two Hall family members served as postmasters of Helen in the early 1850s.
Hall also described a series of religious revival meetings in his neighborhood, with participants including his own “Grandma Hall.” He concludes the letter by outlining his plan to study law “and then I will be the President of the U. S. and then I will waken the black Abolitionists to there senses if they have any.”
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
20
nathan daniel.
Testimony by an overseer taking possession of a runaway slave.
Perry County, AL, 5 November 1864
Document Signed, 5¼ x 8¼ inches, also signed by Judge James F. Bailey as witness; minor wear, docketed on verso.
“Nathan Daniel . . . says that he is overseer for Thomas Goldsby in Dallas County & is authorized as such to take charge of a certain Negro man now confined in Perry County Jail who is the property of said Goldsby. Said boy is about 18 years old, 5 ft high, weighs about 140 pound, colour black, name Jasper.”
Estimate
$300 – $400
21
Senate Chamber U.S.A. Conclusion of Clay’s Speech in Defence of Slavery.
Np, circa 1839
Lithograph, 12 x 10¼ inches; repaired 1-inch puncture in image area, moderate soiling and wrinkling, mount remnants on verso.
In the debate over slavery, one of the country’s most popular politicians, Henry Clay, was infamous for attempting to play both sides. This cartoon skewers one of his 1839 speeches as he angled for another presidential nomination: “I consider Slavery as a Curse, a curse to the Master and a grievous wrong to the Slave,” insisting he was “no friend to slavery.” The cartoon imagines these words existing above the Mason-Dixon Line for northern audiences only, while below the line he admits that he owns 60 slaves and hopes to stall emancipation as long as possible. John Calhoun, the country’s most prominent slavery advocate, shakes his hand and promises his support. Both men are carelessly stepping upon a prone enslaved man, who promises “Rejoice not against me O mine enemy when I fall; I shall arise.” One other example traced at auction.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
22
Certificate of freedom issued in New York.
New York, 26 April 1811
Partly printed document, completed in manuscript and signed twice by Judge Charles Dickinson and once by a witness. One page, 12½ x 7¾ inches, with docketing on verso; quite worn, split into two fragments, with slight loss of text, moderate dampstaining, mount remnants on verso.
This certificate was issued to Anthony Willis, described as “a black man . . . about the age of twenty eight years, and was born at Suffolk County in the State of New York . . . about five feet six inches, has dark eyes and black hair.” In this two-part document, Peter Connor testifies that he has known Willis for two years, and that during that time Willis “hath been reputed and considered to be free, and hath continually acted as a free man during the said time, and that the said Anthony was born free.” Below, judge and alderman Charles Dickinson certifies “I am of the opinion, and do adjudge that the said Anthony is free according to the laws of this State . . . and that he was born free.” The heavy wear to this document suggests that Willis may have carried it on his person at all times for many years.
Estimate
$500 – $750
23
Dorothea lange, oklahoma mother of five children, now picking cotton in california, near fresno * wife and child of migrant worker, near winters, california.
Conditional manumission to “Thomas Peterson, now my slave” granted by a prominent New York politician.
New York, 24 February 1818
Contemporary manuscript transcript, one page, 11¾ x 7½ inches, docketed on verso; folds, toning, minor wear.
“In consideration of the faithful service & good conduct of my man Thomas Peterson, now my slave, & in the further consideration that he shall continue so to serve me & my wife faithfully & honestly . . . I do hereby promise & engage at the expiration of four years from this day to manumit & emancipate him & give him his freedom.”
The man granting the manumission is named only as “DTB,” likely Dirck Ten Broeck (1765-1833), who had been Speaker of the New York General Assembly. The witnesses are Peter Gerard Stuyvesant (1778-1847), his brother-in-law, later president of the New-York Historical Society; and Stephen Philip Van Rensselaer Ten Broeck (1802-1866), his 16-year-old son. What we don’t know: whether Thomas Peterson managed to jump through enough hoops in the ensuing years to gain his freedom.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
24
Letter discussing a manumitted servant who is “quite uneasy about her free papers.”
Lafayette, LA, 27 September [1844?]
Helen ___ to sister-in-law Mary E. Dorsey of Bunker Hill, Macoupin County, IL. 3 pages, 11¼ x 9 inches, plus address panel with faint New Orleans postmark and hand-cancelled “10”; minor wear, a few stray ink marks.
This letter filled with family news discusses a former family servant: “Do you ever hear from old Mammy often? She and sister keep up a regular correspondence. She always mentions Miss Mary. She seems to be quite uneasy about her free papers, lest she might be cheated out of them in some way. She is constantly harping upon them in her letters. She is coming down after Christmas.”
The recipient Mary Allen Buckner Dorsey (1824-1852) married Richard E. Dorsey in Bunker Hill, IL in 1842. Other comments in the letter suggest that it was likely written soon after the birth of her first child Laura in August 1844.
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
25
mary martha sherwood.
The Re-Captured Negro.
Boston, 1821
Hand-colored frontispiece plate (detached). 72 pages. 12mo, contemporary ¼ calf, moderate wear; foxing, moderate wear, lacking free endpapers; early owner’s signature on title page.
First edition of an anti-slavery children’s story by an officer’s wife who had briefly visited Africa. She tells the saga of an adolescent boy named Dazee, captured in Sierra Leone and sent across the Atlantic in an illegal slave ship. The ship was intercepted by a naval vessel, and Dazee returned to Sierra Leone under the care of a benevolent missionary. One traced at auction since 1992. Not in the Rosenbach or Welch bibliographies of American children’s books, or in Afro-Americana; Blockson 7226 (listing only a later English edition); Shaw & Shoemaker 6792.
Estimate
$400 – $600
26
jesse hutchinson jr.
Get Off the Track! A Song for Emancipation, Sung by the Hutchinsons.
Boston: Published by the Author, 1844
5 pages including lithographic cover, 13½ x 10½ inches, on 3 detached pages; minor wear.
The Hutchinson Family Singers emerged from New Hampshire to become the nation’s most popular singing group of the 1840s. Overtly political, they did much to advance the cause of white abolitionism. This sheet music for “Get off the Track” features the “Immediate Emancipation” train pulled by the Liberator locomotive. “Emancipation soon will bless our happy nation. Huzza! Huzza!! Huzza!!!” Every generation could use more pop stars like these.
Estimate
$500 – $750
27
Russell lee, a group of 5 photographs depicting the southern united states.
Address of the Liberty Convention for the Eastern and Middle States.
Hallowell, ME: Newman & Rowell, October 1845
4 printed pages, 16¼ x 11½ inches, on one folding sheet; moderate dampstaining, foxing, and wear, musty.
The Liberty Party ran abolitionist candidates for the presidency from 1840 to 1860, reaching its peak in 1844 with 2.3% of the popular vote. This extra edition of the Liberty Standard abolitionist newspaper includes the two-page rousing keynote address for their 1845 Boston convention, addressing the sinfulness of slaveholding, arguing for the exclusion of Texas from the Union, declaring “national repentance” as the remedy for slavery, and asserting that the nation was “not too young to be destroyed.” It also features an address on “Aggressions of Slaveholders” by Samuel Fessenden, the party’s candidate for Governor of Maine.
Estimate
$400 – $600
28
Proceedings Against William Lloyd Garrison, for a Libel.
Baltimore, MD: William Wooddy, 1847
32 pages. 4to, disbound; toning, dampstaining on bottom edge touching a line of text, “No. 2” inscribed on title page..
The great abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison began his publishing career in Baltimore in 1829, and quickly got into hot water by calling Francis Todd and Captain Nicholas Brown “highway robbers and murderers” for shipping 75 slaves in chains from Baltimore to New Orleans. He was successfully sued for libel in Maryland court, refused to pay the fine, and spent seven weeks in prison. This helped launch Garrison to national prominence in abolitionist circles, and became a well-known episode in his biography. An unnamed party in Baltimore apparently got sick of hearing that his arrest was due to the slavery-loving people of Maryland, and produced this pamphlet many years after the trial. It sets out to demonstrate with long excerpts from the trial that the jurors were actually opposed to slavery, and that Garrison was convicted because he had actually libeled the two slavers. Sabin 26710. None traced at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
29
u.m. fisk.
Series of manuscript lectures by an abolitionist firebrand before, during and after the war.
Vp, 1856-68
9 manuscript volumes, each about 7½ x 5 inches, stitched or unbound, some with original wrappers; generally minor wear.
Uel Merrill Fisk (1823-1911) was a white Universalist pastor and lecturer on the radical abolitionist lecture circuit in the years leading up to the war. Though he was not a household name in his day, he was an active soldier in the good fight. The lectures seen here are remarkably direct and strident, and offered his audiences a clear vision of the institutional roots of slavery, inspiring in them a sense of immediacy for the complete defeat of slave power. He did most of his work in western New York, other than a short stint as pastor in Taunton, MA in the late 1850s. In 1872, he removed to rural Galena, MO, where he spent the remainder of his long life.
“Review of the Recent Strife between Freedom and Slavery, and the Indications of the Future,” parts 1, 2 and 3. [51], [41], [57] pages in 3 volumes. A series of lectures which provides a detailed history of the anti-slavery movement from the 1830s through 1850s, and of the powerful institutional forces which suppressed it; also foresees the inevitable Civil War more than 4 years before Fort Sumter. First delivered at Potsdam, NY on 7 and 14 December 1856, and then in whole or part on 6 occasions in 1857-59 and 1866.
“Secession No. 3: The True Foundation of Government.” [56] pages. First delivered in Taunton, [MA?], May 1861, and then on 4 other occasions through 1864.
Fragments of two different lectures discussing the recent Emancipation Proclamation. [35] and [19] pages, circa 1863.
Untitled lecture beginning “Ladies and gentlemen, I come before you tonight with some embarrassment.” [87] pages, delivered in LeRoy [NY?], October 1864.
Fragment of a lecture, beginning “I said the rebellion of Jereboam against the tyranny of a base king was right.” [35] pages, circa 1864. Includes a passage which gives a good sense of Fisk’s rhetoric: “They revolted from the most liberal government ever established, a government in which they had more than their equal share, they revolted for the sole purpose of maintaining their political ascendancy, and retaining the power to hold a weaker race in bondage. . . . This is not a rebellion from oppression, but for the purpose of oppression; not to secure a right, but to retain the power to rob others of their rights.” (pages 17-19).
Untitled lecture on the upcoming November 1868 election, beginning “The time is rapidly approaching when the Constitution of our country will call upon us to elect our rulers.” [128] pages in 3 loosely stitched gatherings. Argues near the end that “if any man ever earned the right to the ballot, it is the black men of the south.”
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
30
The Liberator’s coverage of the infamous Dred Scott decision.
Boston, 20 March 1857
4 pages, 25 x 18 inches, on one folding sheet, unbound, with illustrated masthead; minor dampstaining and wear, 4½-inch strip excised from top margin; name of subscriber Miss L[ouisa] Simes inked in upper margin.
One of the more important single issues of William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator, with the entire first page and beyond devoted to the text and analysis of the 6 March Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court decision which shook the abolitionist movement. It begins under the headline “Refuge of Oppression” with a lengthy summary and extract of the court’s majority opinion as issued by Chief Justice Taney, followed by the editorials issued elsewhere by the national press. The New York Tribune declared “America the slave breeder and slaveholder!” Much of page 2 is devoted to a long extract from the noble-minded dissenting opinion of Justice Curtis.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
31
The Child’s Anti-Slavery Book . . . about American Slave Children, and Stories of Slave-Life.
New York: Carlton & Porter, Sunday-School Union, [1859]
8 plates (paginated with text), 2 text illustrations. 158, [2]. 16mo, publisher’s cloth, minor wear; moderate foxing, minor dampstaining, lacking front free endpaper, corner torn on page 127-8 with loss of page numbers; 1920 pencil inscription on verso of frontispiece.
Contains 5 essays for budding young abolitionists: “A Few Words about American Slave Children”; “Little Lewis: The Story of a Slave Boy” by Julia Colman; “Mark and Hasty; or, Slave-Life in Missouri” by Matlida G. Thompson; “Aunt Judy’s Story: A Story from Real Life” by Thompson; and “Me Neber Give Up.” One of 3 editions with 1859 copyright date, with priority uncertain (the others being printed in Boston; and in New York by Nelson & Phillips). Afro-Americana 2293; not in Blockson.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
32
Uncle Tom’s Cabin pictorial bandanna.
[England?], circa 1852-60
Printed textile, 15 x 20¼ inches; light folds, minor foxing and wear.
An abolitionist textile with 25 vignettes from Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The central image of an enslaved woman in chains being whipped is captioned “Scenes daily and hourly acting under the shadow of American law.” Listed in Collins, Threads of History, 361 with a circa 1870 date, but we strongly suspect it was issued before abolition.
Estimate
$600 – $900
33
c.j. jack.
[A Political Lecture upon the Influence of Slavery on the Constitution and Union.]
[Brooklyn, 1860]
22 manuscript pages, erratically paginated through 24, 12½ x 8 inches; some edge chipping to first page slightly affecting the text, other moderate toning and wear, clipping affixed to final leaf, apparently lacking one or more leaves at the end.
Charles J. Jack (1812-1873) was a Brooklyn liquor store owner, often referred to in the press as “Colonel C.J. Jack.” He had been an active nativist in Philadelphia in the 1840s, and then became involved in New York politics. This is the original manuscript of an anti-slavery speech he gave shortly before the Civil War. While stating emphatically that he is no abolitionist, Jack emphasizes the importance of preserving the Union. This speech contains none of the rhetoric usually found in the anti-slavery arguments. Sabin 35336 (the published speech).
Estimate
$600 – $900
"WE FOUND THE NEGROES THE BEST PART OF SOCIETY"
34
james a. whipple.
Pair of letters from a radical abolitionist who toured Maryland and Virginia during the war.
Hopedale and Worcester, MA, 1861-62
Autograph Letters Signed to brother Charles. Each 3 pages on a folding sheet; minimal wear.
These letters were written by James Arnold Whipple (1808-1864), a mechanic who served as an officer of the Worcester Anti-Slavery Society. These two letters show a radical abolitionist who was eager to confront and defeat slaveowners–with his fists if necessary.
Whipple’s first letter describes his visit to Washington on 24 December 1861 after his return to Hopedale, MA: “Tuesday eve attended president’s levee. Saw many of the notables of Washington and pronounce Washington a great humbug, the dirtiest city I was ever in, and some of the meanest folks in the world live there. We all shook hands with old Abe. He looks honest, but does not seem to me to be verry smart. I see many men thare that are much smarter.” He then got a pass from Vice President Hamlin to tour the front lines in Virginia, seeing “about one hundred and fifty thousand troops in all, going down as far as Falls Church and to Alexandria. Stood on the spot whare Ellsworth was shot. Could see with a glass the rebel pickets near Falls Church.” On his trip, “had many discussions with slaveholders in Maryland and Washington. Come near fighting, but found they would back down at last. Found them armed generally. I carried no arms, but was readey for them any time, could handle any of them that I see. I told one man I could choke him to death in two minutes. He sneaked off with a pistol in his pocket. . . . We found the Negroes the best part of society, giveing the most intelligent answers and doing most all of the business.” In closing he described the border region as “that God-forsaken country whare one man says he owns another.”
His second letter, dated 27 March 1862 in Worcester, MA, reports on positive news: “I consider it some progress to have Dr. Cheever of New York, Gerritt Smith, Horace Greely and last though not least Wendell Phillips of Boston lecture in Washington and be heard by the president.” He notes that Phillips was “mobbed in Cincinnati” across the river from Kentucky: “the poison virus of slavery is thare . . . it always wants to chrush out free speech, but the world moves and whether this war abolishes slavery or not immediately, it never can hold any power again.”
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
WITH A PIECE OF FLAX HE RAISED AND SPUN
35
Signed photograph of Lewis G. Clarke, inspiration for the escaped slave in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Boston, MA, circa 1890s
Albumen photograph, 3¾ x 2¼ inches, on original mount with printed caption on verso, signed in lower margin “Lewis G. Clark, Boston, Mass” and inscribed on verso “Copyright, I rased that flax and spun that thred,” with a strand of thread tied through a punched hole in one corner of the card; small ink stain in image.
Lewis Garrard Clarke (1815-1897) was born into Kentucky slavery. To avoid being sold into a yet worse fate in Louisiana, he fled for Canada and freedom in 1841. He published “Narrative of the Sufferings of Lewis Clarke” and went out on the abolitionist speaking circuit, where he met aspiring author Harriet Beecher Stowe. The “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” character George Harris is generally believed to be based on Clarke. He remained a popular speaker long after the war. A biography of Clarke appeared in 2014, “When Owing a Shilling Costs a Dollar: The Saga of Lewis G. Clarke, Born a White Slave” by Carver Clark Gayton.
We have traced no other examples of this Clarke portrait, though it was apparently done at the same sitting as two other well-known portraits. The caption on verso reads “Lewis G. Clark, the Original George Harris of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was born in Madison County, Kentucky, March 15, 1815, on his grandfather’s plantation, on Silver Creek, is brother to J.M. Clark, of Cambridgeport, the Messenger in the U.S. Sub-Treasury.” We trace no other Clarke portraits at auction.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
36
william m. cockrum.
History of the Underground Railroad as It was Conducted by the Anti-Slavery League, Including Many Thrilling Encounters Between Those Aiding the Slaves to Escape and Those Trying to Recapture Them.
Oakland City, IN: J.W. Cockrum Printing Co., [1915]
14 plates, plus one map paginated with the text. 328 pages. 8vo, publisher's gilt cloth, minor wear and soiling, some loss of lettering; intermittent minor foxing, a few pencil notes in margins, joints split; early owner's signature on front free endpaper.
First edition of a history of the Underground Railroad in southern Indiana.
The author’s father Colonel James W. Cockrum was a primary source for this history, as were Dr. John W. Posey and several other men from Indiana where this book was published. The region was generally pro-slavery, and the Anti-Slavery League was established there to aid runaway slaves in an organized manner, rather than, in the author’s words “the haphazard way it was being done.” Not in Afro-Americana or Blockson.
Estimate
$400 – $600
37
abraham lincoln.
The first widely disseminated printing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Washington, 24 [29?] September 1862
3 pages, 6¾ x 4½ inches, on one folded sheet; some loss in margin at stitch holes, minor wear.
The fourth preliminary edition of the Emancipation Proclamation, months before it was officially declared. The original manuscript draft was written by the President on 21 September 1862. It was signed by Lincoln and Seward on the 22nd and a first printed version sent to important government figures. This edition is headed General Orders No. 139, and was issued to regimental commanders in the military. It is signed in type by Lincoln, Secretary of State William H. Seward, and Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas. The order to publish was given on 24 September, but Eberstadt (Emancipation Proclamation 4) surmises that it was actually printed a few days later.
Provenance: from the noted collection of William J. Kaland (1915-1983) and accompanied by his inventory envelope.
Estimate
$500 – $750
38
Confederate order regarding “slaves serving . . . without written authority from their masters.”
Richmond, VA, 12 May 1863
3 pages including folding printed form, 8 x 5 inches, signed in type by S. Cooper as Confederate adjutant and inspector general as General Orders No. 59 from his office; 5 punch holes in inner margin; inked “Rebel Archives” stamp on first page.
A Confederate order reminding officers that “It is the duty of adjutants to enquire into and report to this office all cases of slaves serving with their respective regiments, without written authority from their masters.” This was done to ensure that owners were being properly paid when their enslaved people were doing Army work, even if suddenly requisitioned –and that the owners would NOT continue to be paid if the slaves returned home, or defected to the Union lines.
Estimate
$600 – $900
39
charles paxson; photographer.
Learning is Wealth: Wilson, Charley, Rebecca & Rosa, Slaves from New Orleans.
New York, 1864
Albumen carte de visite photograph, 3¼ x 2 inches, on original printed mount; minimal wear.
The fair-skinned children in this photograph, Charley, Rebecca and Rosa, had recently been freed from slavery, and their images were used to stir up sympathy against the institution. Wilson Chinn, the freedman at right, had been depicted in another photograph with various instruments of torture used on slaves. Here Chinn and the children are shown learning reading together as free people. The image was produced as a fundraiser, as stated on verso: “The nett proceeds from the sale of these Photographs will be devoted to the education of Colored People in the department of the Gulf, now under the command of Maj. Gen’l Banks.” With–another carte de visite of an albino African American girl, Helen Ann Windman Walker, who was exhibited widely as a circus attraction. Albumen photograph, 3½ x 2¼ inches, on plain mount, captioned on verso in pencil: “Feb 1862, Ellen Walker, Paterson, NY.”
Estimate
$600 – $900
40
“The Right Man in the Right Place” caricature of justice for Jefferson Davis.
Np, circa 1865
Engraved card, 3¾ x 2¼ inches; corners clipped, minor foxing.
When Jefferson Davis was elected as the first president of the Confederacy, he was proclaimed by his followers to be “the right man in the right place.” This card celebrating the defeat of the Confederacy uses the same caption–under a caricature of a Black Union soldier hoisting Davis up on a gallows.
Estimate
$300 – $400
41
Farm security administration, a portfolio of 10 f.s.a. photographs, including images by dorothea lange, walker evans, arthur rothstein, and ben shahn.
Issue of the Liberator from the date of Lincoln’s assassination.
Boston, 14 April 1865
4 pages, 25 x 18 inches, on one folding sheet; minor foxing and wear along folds.
A hallmark issue of the great abolitionist weekly newspaper. Of course, the newspaper does not cover the shooting of the president, which took place late that evening. However, it was issued just as the war was coming to a close, with fascinating articles relating to the capture of Richmond and Lee’s surrender. With the fall of the Confederacy, William Lloyd Garrison had announced plans for the discontinuation of the Liberator, as his life’s work for the past three decades was now largely complete. Perhaps most poignant are the debates over the president’s ongoing negotiations for a final peace which he would not live to enjoy.
Estimate
$400 – $600
13TH AMENDMENT
42
Joint Resolution . . . Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution . . . Abolishing Slavery.
Chicago: Engraved for D. R. Clark by the Western Banknote Co., 1868
Engraved broadside, with facsimile signatures of Abraham Lincoln and other officials, and of all congressmen voting in favor, illustrated with a vignette of a freed family gathered around a portrait of Lincoln, 23½ x 18 inches, on heavy stock; 2 repaired tears, 5 and 2½ inches, moderate dampstaining and edge wear, minor foxing.
An elaborately engraved commemorative printing of the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude . . . shall exist within the United States.”
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
43
Certificates for a woman named Dina sold twice in two days in British Cape Town.
Cape Town, South Africa, July 1817
3 party-printed manuscript documents, 12 x 7½ inches and smaller, signed by various parties; fastened together with wax seal, minor wear.
Slavery came to the Cape of Good Hope in 1658 under the Dutch East Indian Company, with slaves imported widely from elsewhere in southern Africa as well as the Indian subcontinent and Indonesia. The British continued slavery after occupying the Cape in 1795, until its abolition throughout the empire in 1834. These documents show the sale of a 21-year-old housemaid named Dina by the vendue master of Cape Town to Edward George on 29 July 1817, and then again the following day from George to Jacob Van Reenen, as recorded by the Office for the Enregisterment of Slaves.
Estimate
$400 – $600
44
Decree of the provisional rebel government abolishing slavery.
Camagüey, Cuba, 26 February 1869
Illustrated letterpress broadside, 18½ x 13 inches, headed “Dectreto, Asemblea de Representantes del Centro, Abolición de la Esclavitud,” numbered “54” in manuscript and bearing the embossed seal of the Republica Cubana and signatures of Salvador Cisneros y Betancourt, Eduardo Agramonte, Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz, Francisco Sánchez y Betancourt and Antonio Zambrana; horizontal folds, ½-inch hole in lower margin touching one signature.
This proclamation was issued by the radical faction of the Cuban nationalist rebels against Spanish rule in first months of the Ten Years’ War. It is illustrated with a dramatic woodcut signed “LFR” depicting a freed man and a rebel celebrating in front of the Cuban flag. The proclamation declared freedom for all the enslaved people of Cuba, in hopes that they would join the revolutionary struggle. It provided for eventual compensation to slaveholders, and ordered that freed individuals must serve the revolution either through military service or by continuing with their previous work. Among the signers were the important leaders Salvador Cisneros y Betancourt (as president, just below the printed text) and Ignacio Agramonte y Loynáz (as secretary, to the left of the engraving). The practical effect of this decree was modest, as the rebels only controlled limited territory before their ultimate defeat, and their territory was generally under control of more conservative military commanders. Slavery did not actually end in Cuba until 1886.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
45
Mexican estate record including an inventory of enslaved people.
Mexico, 1671
6 manuscript pages on stamped paper, 12½ x 8½ inches, stitched; edge wear and closed tears.
A petition from the Dominican friar Juan Tomás Mejía, requesting that he be granted the license to make an official inventory of the estate of his late sister, María de Buitrón y Mujica. The inventory follows the petition, including several items from Buitrón’s properties in Mexico City and on her mining hacienda in Guanajuato. In addition to clothes, jewelry, furniture, paintings, and religious items, it includes the names, genders, ages, and marital status of her 3 slaves. One of them, a fifty-year-old woman named Magdalena, was married to a free mulatto despite herself being enslaved.
Estimate
$500 – $750
46
Vicente guerrero.
Manifiesto . . . a sus compatriotas.
Mexico, 1829
20 pages. 4to, original plain wrappers; minor foxing and dampstaining.
Guerrero was the second president of Mexico. An Afro-Mexican and liberal abolitionist, he would abolish slavery in Mexico during his brief term in office. This speech was delivered on the day he took office, 1 April 1829. Palau 110016; Sabin 29136.
Estimate
$500 – $750
MEXICAN PRINTING OF THE INFAMOUS ASIENTO
47
Assiento ajustado entre las dos magestades catholica y Bretanica
Mexico: María de Rivera, 1734
sobre encargarse la Compañía de Inglaterra de la Introducción de esclavos negros en la America Española. [2], 29 pages. 4to, disbound; moderate worming, slightly cropped; edges tinted red; inked stamp of historian Felípe Teixidor on page 1.
A later publication of the infamous Asiento of 1713, which gave Great Britain’s South Sea Company the exclusive rights to export enslaved Africans to Spanish America. This edition not in Medina, Mexico or traced at auction; one in OCLC.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
48
Group of photographs of a Methodist Episcopal mission in rural Liberia.
Jack’s Town, Sinoe River, Liberia, 1904-07
4 silver print photographs, each about 5 x 7, on original plain mounts with inked captions on verso; minor wear.
“Uncle James’ Church,” a tiny building made of corrugated iron sheets * “Aunt Frieda’s School, a large building made of the same material with a wrap-around porch * “A newly married native couple, Jack Town Mission, Sinoe Co., Liberia, West Africa. 1904” * and “Uncle James Robertson’s grave, Jack Town, Sinoe River, West Africa.” The tombstone identifies James Bowie Robertson (1850-1907) as a Scotsman; a group of small children stand at the grave site with the minister’s widow.
Estimate
$300 – $400
49
Blood People Land.
La Puente, CA: Monarch Publications, 1974
Poster, 29¼ x 23 inches; minimal wear.
Africa is shown in outline in red, black, and green. None others traced in OCLC or at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
50
Our History Did Not Begin in Chains, and It Will Not End in Chains.
Poster, 33 x 23 inches; minimal wear.
The title quote is from Malcolm X. At bottom is a quote from the Bissau-Guinean revolutionary Amílcar Cabral: “The colonialists have a habit of telling us that when they arrived they put us into history. You are well aware that it’s the contrary–when they arrived they took us out of our own history. Liberation for us is to take back our destiny and our history.” The poster is illustrated with images celebrating African culture. Other examples, including one at the University of Michigan, have a Black Liberation Press imprint in the lower right margin.
Estimate
$200 – $300
Art
51
french johnson, artist.
Folk art drawings done by a Virginia farm hand.
Rosendale Plantation, VA, 1881
3 pencil and ink drawings, one with hand coloring, on one side of a sheet of stationery, 8 x 10 inches; folds, foxing and toning, minimal wear.
These sketches are titled in manuscript as “French Johnson drawing” and captioned below: “A colored man French Johnson draw these, a brother of William Mayes who was hired with his family at Rosendale 1881.”
One drawing features an elephant, captioned “Shoe will tak place on the 14 of Feber, elephant good by.” Elephants were not a regular sight in Virginia during this period, but a Sells elephant show did pass through nearby Woodstock on 1 October 1878.
Next is an elaborate drawing of a calliope (or steam piano) captioned “Steem par-an-ner and four horse.” Calliopes and elephants were both mainstays of touring circuses.
Below it are two men on horseback (one chugging from a whiskey jug), captioned “Mr. Worke Williamson” and “Mr. Tommas Jackson.” Williamson calls out “Hold on, Tom, don’t drink it all up, for I am coming, I want a drink, yes, for I am drunk now.” Could that represent the fallen Confederate cavalryman, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson? Why not?
French Johnson (born circa 1859) appears as a Black farm laborer in the 1880 census for Lee Township in Shenandoah County, VA, quite near the Rosendale Plantation in New Market. He was possibly the same French Johnson (born circa 1861 in Virginia) who appeared as a gardener in Malden, MA in 1900, and died there in 1904.
Estimate
$500 – $750
52
loïs mailou jones.
Original portrait of activist Sue Bailey Thurman, done for the 1942 “Twelve American Women” calendar.
Np, [1941]
Ink and wash drawing, 15 x 12 inches (13 x 9¾ inches to sight), signed by the artist “L.M. Jones,” taped into original 20¾ x 16½-inch paper mat featuring a hand-lettered caption and ink illustration (also by Jones?), with small printed calendar for April 1942 laid down; moderate wear to mat.
The subject, Sue Bailey Thurman (1903-1996), is here described as a “Promoter of Intercultural Relations.” An extended biographical paragraph describes her work connecting Black culture with India and Latin America. She met with Mahatma Gandhi and was later instrumental in conveying his teachings on nonviolent resistance to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
53
loïs mailou jones, artist.
Calendar: Twelve American Women, 1942.
Np, [1941]
Cover sheet printed in black and yellow-green plus 12 pages printed in brown on heavy tan paper, 12 x 9 inches, loosely bound with string on top edge; minimal wear at corners.
Among the featured women in this little-known but compelling work are Mary McLeod Bethune, Marian Anderson, Sue Bailey Thurman (see above), Mary Church Terrell, and more, each illustrated with a portrait. The December page contains a self-portrait and biography of Jones, crediting her as the artist for all 12 portraits as well as the cover (a detail adapted from her mural “Light” at Howard University). 2 other examples traced in OCLC, and none at auction.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
54
Group of 14 photographs of early Jacob Lawrence paintings, most of them now lost.
New York and Washington, circa October 1944
14 black and white photographs, each 7 x 9 or 8 x 10 inches, each with various period stamps and labels on verso; minor wear.
Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) first came to national prominence as an artist in 1941 with his 60-panel Great Migration series. He was drafted into the Coast Guard in 1943 and served in public affairs aboard the ship Sea Cloud, the first integrated warship in the United States since the Civil War. Lawrence produced approximately 48 paintings for the Coast Guard during this period, capturing the spirit of men at sea. In October 1944, the Coast Guard collaborated with the Museum of Modern Art in New York on a Jacob Lawrence exhibition, which featured the entire Great Migration series and 8 of his new Coast Guard paintings. Almost the entire body of his Coast Guard output is now lost.
Offered here are 14 promotional photographs of these Coast Guard paintings. Most notable are photographs of 5 paintings which did not appear in “Jacob Lawrence: Paintings, Drawings, and Murals, a Catalog Raisonné” by Nesbett and Dubois in 2000–in other words, their existence was not then otherwise known to Lawrence scholarship, although a file has since been located at the National Archives. These are titled “Checker Game,” “Handling Line,” “Machinist Mate,” “Worship,” and “Wrestlers.” Of these 5, one (“Handling Line”) was later reproduced in John Ott’s article “Battle Station MoMA: Jacob Lawrence and the Desegregation of the Armed Forces and the Art World” in American Art 29:3 (Fall 2015). These five paintings do not appear to have been included in the MoMA exhibition. Each had a typed caption from the Coast Guard’s Public Information Division laid down on verso, with a few sentences of description interpreting the painting and extolling Lawrence’s importance. For example, the caption for “Machinist Mate” (illustrated) reads “A Coast Guard machinist’s mate solders wire in the engine room of a Coast Guard-manned troop transport in this impressionistic watercolor by Coast Guard Combat Artist Jacob A. Lawrence of Brooklyn, N.Y. The brilliant young Negro artist has caught the cramped working conditions and the feeling of machinery in this bold depiction of life aboard ship.” “Handling Line” similarly shows Coast Guardsmen examining their lines for signs of wear. “Worship” depicts a “service in the Jewish faith aboard a Coast Guard-manned troop transport. His pulpit is marked with the Star of David.” “Checkers” and “Wrestlers” depict recreational activities to break the shipboard tedium; one of the checker players sports a prominent tattoo and has his cigarette precariously balanced on a stack of game pieces.
Even more than with most artists, a Jacob Lawrence reproduction without color is hardly a substitute for the original–but for some of these paintings, it may be all we have.
7 of the photographs (“General Quarters,” “Holy Stoning the Deck,” “Officer’s Steward,” “Prayer,” two different paintings titled “Recreation,” and “Signal Practice”) have shorter title labels from the Coast Guard, short exhibit labels from the Museum of Modern Art, and stamps indicating that the photographs were shot by MOMA staff photographer Soichi Sunami, presumably to publicize the October 1944 exhibition. These are 7 of the 8 Coast Guard paintings which were displayed at MoMA, although in these cases at least reproduction images survive elsewhere. Similarly, photographs of “Anchor on Cart” and “Bakers” show paintings which have been reproduced elsewhere, even if the originals is unknown.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
55
jacob lawrence.
File of his correspondence with the printers of his John Brown series.
Vp, 1974-78
13 items in one folder, including 5 letters signed by Jacob Lawrence; minimal wear.
One of the highlights of Jacob Lawrence’s artistic output was his series of 22 paintings on abolitionist John Brown, completed in 1942. In 1974, the Detroit Institute of Arts issued them as a portfolio of silk-screen prints. This correspondence file was retained by the printers, Ives-Sillman Inc. of New Haven, CT, and documents their collaboration with Lawrence on this portfolio and other projects.
Included are 4 typed letters signed by Lawrence, one unsigned carbon copy, and another letter entirely in his hand. His first, dated 18 August 1975, announces that he has sent the silk screen design for his “Harlem Street Scene” for the Harlem School of the Arts, and on 23 September he requests the painting’s return. His 1 January 1976 letter discusses the printing of the John Brown series: “I appreciate the need for my full cooperation during its execution. I do look forward to making a contribution at any stage that it is felt I might be needed.” On 19 September 1976 he writes to the Detroit Institute of the Arts that he has now received the first half of the portfolio in its entirety and that “the Ives-Sillman Studio is doing an excellent job . . . with great sensitivity” (sending this carbon copy of the compliment to the firm). On 24 November he announces his travel plans to fly in on 20 December for the final step: “Could you please let me know if the graphics will be available for signing at the time of our arrival.” Lawrence’s final letter is more personal, written shortly after the death of the firm’s partner Norman Ives on 2 February 1978. He writes to the surviving partner Sewell Sillman: “It was both a pleasure and a rewarding experience to have known him, to have seen and heard him talk about his work. And of course to have had such a professional as Norman show the interest and sensitivity that he did in my work was, for me, an honor. . . . I wish to thank the Ives-Sillman Studio for its sensitive and creative work in silk-screening the John Brown series.”
Also included are 7 other items relating to the firm’s work with Lawrence. A preliminary letter from the Detroit Institute of Arts is dated 24 Jne 1974: “We are still deeply interested in this project but, as you must realize, the financing of it needs considerable discussion.” 4 of Sillman’s retailed carbon copy letters to Lawrence document his work. On the Harlem School of the Arts project, he notes on 14 November 1975: “The edition is 150. With the original, I am enclosing 160 prints. The extras are for errors made in signing, keep the rest for yourself.” On 15 December 1975 he announces the approval for “a Portfolio in a limited edition of your series of 22 gouache on John Brown. . . . Since the original work can not be removed from the museum . . . I started the project while I was at the University of Michigan by examining five of the works. I made an outline drawing of each work and, using a printers edition of the Pantone Matching System, I selected colors. . . . I will develop a screenprint as close as I can to the original.” On 17 February 1976 he announces that a color transparency for #7 has been sent “because it will be about as difficult as any in the publication. . . . I will want to ask you about details like the brush marks in the table and in the walls.” On 27 March 1976, he tries to clear up some confusion on print numbering: “Transworld has, in addition to the 125 numbered and signed prints, 40 which are signed but not numbered. Hopefully, you have 10 more which you should title and sign but not number.” Finally, the lot includes a shipping notice of a complete mock-up sent to the Detroit Institute of Arts on 9 December 1976, and an unsigned contract for the project between the firm and the Institute. As a whole, this file is an important historical source on one of Jacob Lawrence’s most enduring projects.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
INSCRIBED BY THE ARTIST
56
jacob lawrence.
Olympische Spiele München 1972.
Poster, 39 x 24½ inches to sight; 3 x 4½-inch sticker in lower right bearing gift inscription signed by the artist: “To Ruth and Arthur, For a wonderful day and visit in Bridgehampton. Jacob Lawrence, July 7th 1972.” Not examined out of frame.
A poster produced for the 1972 Olympics, featuring art by Lawrence depicting 5 relay racers in mid-stride.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
57
manet harrison fowler.
Portrait of a young woman.
Np, circa 1940s
Oil on canvas, 35 x 23½ inches, unframed, signed “MFowler” at lower right, mislabeled on verso “Nanette Fowler”; creases, formerly rolled, 2-inch chip on left edge, several short tears and punctures.
Manet Harrison Fowler (1895-1976) was a Texas native and 1913 graduate of the Tuskegee Institute who later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and toured the country as a soprano opera singer. She brought the Mwalimu Center for African Culture to Harlem in 1932, and became an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. The sitter in this portrait was possibly one of her daughters, Manet Helen Fowler or Rosemary Fowler.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Masood Ali Wilbert Warren (1907-1995)
Masood Ali Wilbert Warren, of New York, attended the Art Students League in the 1930s, graduated from New York University in 1939, served in the United States Army for many years as a quartermaster sergeant, and received a Masters in the Arts from Temple University in 1961.
His work was exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the American Watercolor Society, and the National Arts Club.
Archive
58
Masood ali wilbert warren
Archive of sketches, correspondence, and other papers.
Vp, 1940-89 and undated (bulk 1960-1986)
Well over 1,000 items (1.6 linear feet in 3 boxes), including: more than 920 drawings, most on loose sheets of about 12 x 9 inches executed in conté crayon, graphite or felt tip pen, many dated (the bulk from about 1958 to 1989), a few with "M.A.W." inked stamps on verso, few of them signed or captioned, plus more than 50 letters and more than 70 photographs; some with moderate wear, a few with moderate dampstaining.
Warren is known primarily for his portrait busts and other sculptural work, but as seen in this archive, he was also a prolific sketcher. The bulk of the pieces in this lot are candid portrait sketches of unidentified people, usually alone or sometimes in pairs, many of them Black but spanning a wide range of ethnicities. His subjects are often depicted on park benches, strolling down sidewalks, or sitting at lunch counters, evoking the streets of New York in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. A few are arranged by subject matter, with folders devoted to musicians, nudes, and animals. Most of the pieces are about 12 x 9 inches; a portfolio box contains 17 larger sketches of nudes, about 18 x 12 inches, as well as a 17 x 14 watercolor portrait dated 1979.
In addition to the original sketches, this lot includes more than 50 personal and professional letters to Warren, 1940–77, including letters from Congressman Charles Rangel, Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton, numerous letters regarding employment and commissions, and some relating to his Muslim faith. More than 70 photographs are included, many of them official Air Force photographs documenting his sculptural work, or of the artist in uniform and/or at work. Also included are portraits inscribed to Warren by singers Lena Horne and Kay Starr in 1948. Two large panels with mounted photographs are proposals for large sculpture projects—a monument to World War Two ace pilot Thomas McGuire which was given a prominent place at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, and another to the lost submarine SSN Thresher.
Selections from this archive were on exhibit at the New York Public Library’s George Bruce Library in February 2018 as “Masood A.W. Warren: Harlem’s Everyday People.”
Provenance: gift from the artist to the consignor.
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
59
Folder of publicity materials on Black artists compiled by a California art critic.
Vp, 1968-70 and undated
33 items; generally minor wear.
The file was compiled by the art critic of the Vallejo Times-Herald, north of San Francisco. It includes 7 press releases, 9 publicity photographs, a carbon copy of a review, 2 letters, 3 brochures, and 11 clippings, all in their original manila folder. Featured artists include Ben Hazard and sculptor Jack White (both photographed at work), photographs of several works by Raymond Howell, a photograph of Jacob Lawrence’s 1946 work “Radio Repairs,” and promotional materials for group exhibitions such as the 1968 “Perspectives in Black Art” show in Oakland.
Estimate
$500 – $750
60
earl l. scarborough; artist.
Black is Beautiful.
Oakland, CA: Black Pride Arts Unlimited, 1968
Poster, 23 x 18 inches; minimal wear; signed in ink by the artist below his facsimile signature.
Earl L. Scarborough (1934-2001) was one of ten Black artists exhibited at New York’s Merino Gallery in 1956, and was a graduate of Langston University. According to an Oakland Tribune profile on 25 September 1968, these posters were “selling at a phenomenal rate in many department stores in the Eastbay and San Francisco.” The artist explained that “White beauty has already been established, and I’m simply trying to add another flower to that bouquet of beauty.”
Estimate
$300 – $400
61
AfriCOBRA 1: Ten in Search of a Nation.
Chicago: W J Studios and Gallery, 21 June 1970
Double-sided poster, 22 x 17 inches, for their first formal exhibition; folds, minor wear and dampstaining on top edge.
The group of ten artists known as AfriCOBRA (African Commune Of Bad Relevant Artists) was formed in 1962, but did not mount their first formal exhibition until this June 1970 show at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Samples of the work are superimposed over a collage silhouette of Africa on recto, with images of the ten artists on verso, along with lists of their works. Among the artists are Barbara Jones-Hogu, Carolyn Lawrence, Nelson Stevens, Jeff Donaldson, and Wadsworth Jarrell. None traced in OCLC or at auction, although last year Swann offered a similar poster from the show’s September 1970 Boston stop.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
we ask you, as Governor, to intercede for the release of Angela Davis on reasonable bail.
62
charles white.
Reproduction of his “Love Letter 1” on a card calling for the release of Angela Davis.
San Francisco, CA, 1971
4 pages, 7 x 5 inches, printed in black and red on one folding sheet; minimal wear. With original printed envelope addressed to Governor Reagan.
Charles White expressed his support for the imprisoned activist Angela Davis in several ways, most prominently by authorizing the reproduction of his recent lithograph “Love Letter 1” in this appeal by the National United Committee to Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners. The card was intended to be filled out as a sort of petition to California’s governor Ronald Reagan. It reads in part “Dear Governor Reagan . . . Because we truly believe that she is being denied the presumption of innocence and equal protection under the law . . . we ask you, as Governor, to intercede for the release of Angela Davis on reasonable bail.” Ironically, the card’s beauty probably undercut its effectiveness, as this and other copies were saved rather than mailed in. Beegan & Gustafson, Angela Davis pages 54, 56.
Estimate
$600 – $900
63
Walker evans, cherokee parts store garage work, atlanta, georgia * street scene, vicksburg, mississippi.
8th Annual Lawndale Art Fair.
[Chicago], 23 July [1971]
Poster, 23 x 14 inches, on card stock; 2 light creases, minimal wear.
Estimate
$400 – $600
64
josé v. johnson, artist.
Black is Beautiful.
[Sausalito, CA: ThoFra], circa 1971-73
Poster, 23 x 17 inches, on stiff paper; minor wear including tack holes at corners; inked stamp of distributor on verso.
José Vasquez Johnson (1946-1969) shows up in the public records as being married in San Francisco in May 1969 and having died across the bay in Alameda that September. We can find no other record of the artist, or this poster, in OCLC or at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
65
dana c. chandler. jr.
Genocide Series No. 1: Noddin’ Our Liberation Away!
Boston, circa 1970s
Screen print, 17 x 11 inches; small chip to lower right corner.
An anti-heroin piece by “Pan-African Artist” Dana C. Chandler.
Estimate
$600 – $900
66
raul cabello, printer.
Poster featuring a work by his colleague Elizabeth Catlett.
Mexico City, 25 July 1978
Lithograph, 25 x 17½ inches to sight, in red and black; minimal wear, not examined out of frame.
This poster, featuring Catlett’s work “Red Leaves,” was created by Catlett’s colleague and printmaking collaborator Raul Cabella at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (ENAP) in the University of Mexico. It advertises a lithography workshop to be led by Cabello. Catlett had retired from the program 3 years earlier, and remained a revered figure there.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
67
romare bearden.
Respect Human Dignity: Toby Moffett for Senate.
Np, [1982]
Silkscreen poster, 43¾ x 25 inches, with printed signature in image; minor foxing and light wear, mounted on foam board.
This poster was done for the 1982 senatorial campaign of Toby Moffett, a white liberal from Connecticut. It was a tried and true tactic for Moffett, who had used a poster by Alexander Calder to help gain election to the House of Representatives in 1974.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
68
Benjamin banneker.
Banneker’s Almanack, and Ephemeris for the Year of our Lord, 1793.
Philadelphia: Joseph Cruikshank, [1792]
[44 of 48] pages. 12mo, stitched; worn at edges without text loss, toning and finger-soiling, lacking the final 2 leaves H1 and H2 (advertisements) as usual, dampstaining to 5 final remaining leaves, a few early manuscript notes and marks. In early 20th century full morocco slipcase.
The Black scientist and surveyor Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806) is best known today for the annual almanacs he published from 1791 through 1796. This is his scarce second almanac, which was published simultaneously in Philadelphia and Baltimore. It begins with a page-length biography of Banneker (it also appeared in his 1792 almanac), describing his background and education: “To struggle incessantly against want is no ways favourable to improvement: what he has learned, however, he did not forget; for as some hours of leisure will occur in the most toilsome life, he availed himself of these.” He also describes the astronomical calculations he presents in the almanac, which were “finished without the least information or assistance from any person . . . so that whatever merit is attached to his present performance, is exclusively and peculiarly his own.”
Typical of almanacs of this period, it also contains detailed monthly calculations on sunrise, sunset, and phases of the moon, as well as predictions on the weather. An engraving of “The Anatomy of Man’s Body, as said to be governed by the Twelve Constellations” appears on page 3. Other features include a list of feast days, a description of the coming eclipses, a table of compound interest, a lengthy court calendar, and longer text pieces such as Benjamin Rush’s “A Plan of a Peace-Office, for the United States.” Several relate to the anti-slavery movement, including “Abstract from the Speech of William Pitt on the Motion for the Abolition of the Slave Trade” and “Extract from Wilkinson’s Appeal to England on Behalf of the Abused Africans.”
Banneker had famously corresponded with Thomas Jefferson about his almanac in 1791. In this issue, he includes a long abstract from Jefferson’s “Notes on Virginia” in opposition to slavery, in which Jefferson hopes for “total emancipation . . . with the consent of the masters, rather than by their extirpation.” Drake, Almanacs 10324; Evans 24071 (calls for just 44 pages).
Estimate
$12,000 – $18,000
69
The Walker 1949 Almanac: A Personal Guide to Health, Wealth and Romance.
[Indianapolis, IN, 1948]
Illustrated. 32 pages. 8vo, stapled; moderate foxing to outer pages.
An old-fashioned almanac issued by the Mme. C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, with their large advertisement occupying the centerfold. The monthly tables of moon phases and sunrises include dates of historical significance. Oddly enough, 19 January is noted as Robert E. Lee’s birthday, but August commemorates more recent race riots in Harlem and New Jersey. The rest of the volume is devoted to beauty hints, uplifting articles, and copious advertisements. 3 listed in OCLC.
Estimate
$500 – $750
70
Printed portrait and small catalog for Madame Mamie Hightower’s Golden Brown Beauty Preparations.
[Memphis, TN?], circa 1920s
Sizes as noted; short tear and pinhole to portrait, folds to leaflet.
Offered here are a 10 x 8-inch printed portrait of “Madame Mamie Hightower, Illustrious Creator, Golden Brown Beauty Preparations”; and a folding leaflet titled “A Beauty Book Written by Stars of Stage and Screen,” 8 pages on one 7 x 16½-inch sheet. The well-illustrated leaflet features 7 endorsements including singers Rosa Henderson and Ethel Waters.
This company was inspired by the success of Madame Walker’s beauty supply empire. Circa 1921, Hessig-Ellis, a white-owned Memphis company, set up a separate division with 35 Black employees called Madame Mamie Hightower’s Golden Brown Beauty Preparations. Mamie Hightower (1867-1927) was an actual person–wife of a porter at Hessig-Ellis–but apparently served only as a figurehead (see Martha Patterson, “The American New Woman Revisited,” pages 269-270). She had one powerful credential: her portrait shows a strong facial resemblance to the best-known Madame Walker portrait, emphasized by a nearly identical pose. The company continued long after Hightower’s death in 1927. We don’t know for certain what role Mamie ever played in the company, but in 1930 after her death, her husband Zack remained a drugstore porter.
Although this was a profitable and long-lived company, we find no other Hightower / Golden Brown material at auction or in OCLC.
Estimate
$500 – $750
71
Catalog for the Amanda-L Co., a Black-owned hair and beautician’s supply company.
Chicago, circa 1944
Illustrated. 11, [1] pages. 8vo, 8½ x 5½ inches, self-wrappers; folds, moderate soiling and wear.
This catalog features a photograph of the proprietor Madame Amanda L. Boler on the cover, as well as her Chicago storefront. A wide variety of wigs, attachments, and her own line of pomades and cosmetics are featured, as well as the Bobbit-It Electric Heater, hairstyle posters, and more.
Amanda Lorene (Stephens) Boler (1909-2006) was born and raised in Arkansas. She married her husband and business partner Alvin Eugene Boler (1904-1965) in Chicago in 1941, and they removed to Grand Junction, MI in 1946. This little-known company ran ads in the Pittsburgh Courier in 1944 and 1945 from this 4640 Cottage Grove Avenue, Chicago address. No other Amanda-L material has been traced at auction or in OCLC.
Estimate
$500 – $750
72
Naturally ‘63 Portfolio (a program issued by the Grandassa Models).
[20] pages. 4to, 11 x 8½ inches, original black-on-yellow illustrated wrappers, separated at fold and detached from text with moderate wear; minor wear and dampstaining to contents.
The Grandassa Models were a group launched by the African Jazz-Art Society & Studio; they held a series of influential beauty pageants in 1962 and 1963 to promote a more natural and Afrocentric standard of beauty. The singer Abbey Lincoln was an organizer and appears here as the first model. This program begins with an essay by president Cecil Brathwaite [Elombe Brath], “The Winds of Change–In Coiffure & Fashion,” followed by photographs of 10 female models and 4 males, as well as cartoons, a tribute to Marcus Garvey, and photographs of the African Jazz-Art Society & Studio directors. Secretary-treasurer Ronnie [Kwame] Brathwaite was also responsible for the photography. One in OCLC, and none traced at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
73
Group of beautician and pageant programs.
Vp, 1955-65
7 volumes, various sizes, original wrappers; various wear and soiling.
“The National Council of Negro Women Presents ‘Love in Springtime: On Wheels of Fashion,” East St. Louis, IL, 25 March 1955.
“Souvenir Program of the Seventh Annual Convention of the Tennessee State Beauticians Assn.,” October 1958.
“Souvenir Book, Alabama Independent Beauticians Association, Inc., Second Annual Convention,” Mobile, AL, June 1958.
“Souvenir Program, Kentucky Congress of Barbers and Beauticians,” Frankfort, KY, 1964.
“Bronner’s Annual Fall Beauty Clinic,” Atlanta, GA, November 1957.
“Bronner’s Annual Fall Beauty Clinic,” Atlanta, GA, November 1958 (with related circular letter dated 25 August 1958).
“Bronner Bros. Southeastern Beauty Trade Show,” Atlanta, GA, November 1965.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Black Panthers
74
julius lester, compiler.
Our Folk Tales: High John the Conqueror and Other Afro-American Tales.
Numerous color illustrations. [39] pages. Oblong 4to, 9 x 12 inches, original spiral binding with cardstock covers illustrated with outlines of Africa and the United States, uneven toning and abrasion to rear cover; minimal wear and toning.
First edition. While registering voters throughout the deep south as a member of SNCC, Julius Lester collected these African-American folk songs and tales, which later became part of his 1969 book “Black Folk Tales.” The title page has a black panther reading a red colored book to 3 young children. Lester has stated that this was published in-house at SNCC and he believes that less than 1,000 copies were printed. The illustrator Jennifer Lawson, a Black artist, later became senior vice-president at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
75
A young man raises funds for the Black Panthers, a month before Newton and Seale launched their group.
Berkeley, CA, 23 September 1966
Photograph, 7½ x 10 inches, with United Press International inked stamp and mimeograph caption label on verso; minimal wear.
A quiet sunny day on the University of California campus in Berkeley. A young man sits at a folding card table with tidy stacks of freshly printed Black Panther publications behind a sign reading “Support the Black Panther Party!” He is reading the 18 September issue of the early underground newspaper, the Berkeley Barb. The caption on verso presents the scene as a campus radical freak show, giving equal billing to the “coed wearing dungarees and a turtleneck sweater.” These are not the Black Panthers we know from other images.
Stokely Carmichael had been working with the Lowndes County Freedom Organization in Alabama, which had developed the iconic Black Panther logo to help with their voter registration drive. This young man was likely raising funds to support the Alabama project. The Black Panther name and logo were becoming popular in rallies on college campuses and other radical hotbeds, and a New York group had already adopted the name. However, not until late October 1966–a month after this photograph was taken–did Huey Newton and Bobby Seale launch a new organization in nearby Oakland, which they called the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
76
Black Power pinback featuring an early appearance of SNCC’s Black Panther logo.
Np, circa late 1966
Pinback button, 1¾ inches across; light toning, minimal wear.
In late 1966, Stokely Carmichael and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee had been organizing with the Lowndes County Freedom Organization in Alabama, which had developed the iconic Black Panther logo to help with their voter registration drive. This version of the logo appeared on the cover of SNCC’s August 1966 publication, “The Black Power Issue: Notes and Comment,” months before Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland.
Estimate
$600 – $900
77
Black Power: SNCC Speaks for Itself, a Collection of Statements and Interviews.
Boston: New England Free Press, circa 1967
[1], 9 pages on 3 folding sheets including printed wrappers. 4to, 11 x 8½ inches, unbound; faint paper clip stain on rear wrapper, minimal wear.
Features a clenched first and the Black Panther silhouette on the front wrapper, an essay on “The Basis of Black Power,” statements by Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown, and an interview with Brown.
Estimate
$400 – $600
78
emory douglas, artist.
One of Our Main Purposes is to Unify Our Brothers and Sisters in the North
San Francisco, CA: [Black Panther Party], circa 1969
with Our Brothers and Sisters in the South. Poster, 17½ x 12 inches, in black on stiff paper; light toning, minimal wear.
One of the more enduring images by Douglas. An alternate newspaper version featured the man standing alone, wearing a button which read “For every pork chop there is a frying pan” (see The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas, page 89). In this version, he stands with other revolutionaries and the button has a photograph of Ericka Huggins. We have also seen a larger version of this image on newsprint.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
79
All Power to the People, Black Power to Black People. Kathleen Cleaver . . . Peace & Freedom Party.
Np, [1968]
Poster, 23 x 17½ inches; moderate wear including tack holes, puncture just below portrait, horizontal fold, and staining in upper left corner.
Campaign poster for Oakland’s 18th Assembly District, identifying her as the Communications Director of the Black Panther party and bearing the Panther logo as well as that of the Peace and Freedom Party. One example in OCLC, at Yale; none traced at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
80
[emory douglas, artist.]
Solidarity with the African American People.
Poster, 21¼ x 14 inches, in 5 colors with title repeated in French, Spanish, and Arabic; horizontal fold, minor wear.
The poster was designed by Lazaro Abreu featuring artwork by Emory Douglas, who was “politically and formally allied to the OSPAAAL revolutionary artists”–Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas, pages 100-1, showing an example with different colors.
Estimate
$600 – $900
81
An Attack Against One is an Attack Against All.
San Francisco, CA: Robert Brown Elliott League, circa 1968-70
Poster, 22½ x 17½ inches; minor wear, tape remnants on verso.
“The Slaughter of Black People Must be Stopped! By Any Means Necessary!” This dramatic poster with a large Panther logo was distributed by the Robert Brown Elliott League of San Francisco, named after a Black member of the Reconstruction Congress. Little is known about them, but their 540 McAllister Street address was shared by Julian Richardson’s bookstore Marcus Books during this period. Only one copy in OCLC. Cleveland State University has a photograph dated July 1970 showing another example of this poster taped to a door.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
82
Black Panther Party organizational chart for New York City.
[Washington, 1969]
Printed table illustrated with 32 photographs, 11 x 19¼ inches; folds as issued, minimal wear.
An organizational chart of the New York City chapter of the Panthers, prepared by the F.B.I. as part of a federal report on riots and civil disorders. Among the members listed here are several of the “Panther 21” who were acquitted of attempting to bomb two New York police stations: Afeni Shakur (mother of Tupac) and her husband Anthony Costen / Lumumba Shakur, John Casson / Ali Bey Hassan, Michael Tabor / Cetewayo, Joan Byrd, Lonnie Epps, Donald Weems / Kwesi Ballagoon, Richard Harris / Nine, Lee Berry, and Lee Roper / Shaba-um.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
83
emory douglas, artist.
All the Weapons We Used Against Each Other We Now Use Against the Oppressor /
San Francisco, [1970]
By All Means Available. Poster, 22¾ x 15 inches; ¾-inch closed puncture in lower left corner, tack holes, two folds, minor wear.
This artwork originally appeared at the centerfold of the Black Panther newspaper on 4 July 1970–in orange rather than purple, and without the Panther logo and credit lines. See “The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas,” page 75.
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
84
emory douglas, artist.
We Are Advocates of the Abolition of War.
San Francisco, CA: Black Panther Party, undated
Poster, 18 x 22 inches; 6 short cello tape stains in margins, minor wear.
A quotation from Chairman Mao is illustrated with five militants of various races brandishing weapons. “In order to get rid of the gun, it is necessary to take up the gun.” The American Indian at right doesn’t have a gun, but brandishes a flaming tomahawk. Printed by Graphic Arts of Marin County. Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas, page 170 (showing a later imprint line from the Black Draft Counseling Union). None in OCLC.
Estimate
$500 – $750
85
emory douglas, artist.
Untitled print of a mother and armed child.
[San Francisco, CA], 1967
Lithograph, 20¾ x 17½ inches, signed in the image “Emory 67”; folds, 2-inch closed tear in image, light dampstaining, minor wear, laid down on modern board.
Draped over a woman’s shoulder is a baby clutching a handgun. The Center for the Study of Political Graphics has two versions of this print: this one, and another with the credit line “Design By: Emory, Minister of Culture, Black Panther Party Ministry of Information, P.O. Box 2967, Custom House, San Francisco, CA 94126.” Illustrated in “Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas” as the frontispiece.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
86
Group of 8 “Wanted by the FBI” posters for Panthers and other radicals.
Washington, DC, 1968-83
Various sizes, each with folds and minor wear.
Leroy Eldridge Cleaver, for interstate flight and assault with intent to commit murder, 8 x 8 inches, addressed to postmaster of Milford, MO, 18 December 1968.
Angela Yvonne Davis for interstate flight, murder, and kidnapping, 16 x 10½ inches, addressed to Garrison, NY, 18 August 1970.
Leroy Eldridge Cleaver, for interstate flight and assault with intent to commit murder, 16 x 10½ inches, unaddressed, 13 December 1968.
Hubert Geroid Brown [H. Rap Brown], for interstate flight, arson, inciting to riot, and failure to appear, 16 x 10½ inches, binding holes, unaddressed, 5 May 1970.
Joanne Chesimard [Assata Shakur] for interstate flight and murder, 17 x 11 inches, binding holes, addressed to Chariton, IA, 31 May 1983 (with her 2004 wanted poster).
Nilsa Cobeo as accessory after the fact and material witness, 17 x 11 inches, addressed to Cameron, NC, 14 July 1983.
Patricia Campbell Hearst for national firearms act and bank robbery, 8 x 8 inches, unaddressed, 24 September 1974.
Patricia Campbell Hearst and two others, 16 x 10½ inches, unaddressed, 10 April 1975.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
87
Group of 9 press photographs of the Black Panthers.
Vp, 1968-71
Each 8 x 10 inches, with inked UPI stamps on verso, captioned either in image or by slips affixed to verso; minimal wear.
Bullet holes in the windows of the Panther headquarters, 10 September 1968; armed Panthers being asked to unload their guns outside a Washington statehouse hearing, 28 February 1969; Panthers in formation at an Oakland “anti-fascist rally”, 20 December 1969; Panthers and children delivering the Black Power salute at the Liberation School in San Francisco, 20 December 1969; courthouse demonstration, 11 February 1970; Huey Newton exiting Alameda County Jail, 5 August 1970; Newton passing through a cheering Philadelphia crowd, 5 September 1970; casket of George Jackson passing through a crowd in front of the Panther banner, 28 August 1971; Jackson’s casket being lifted from the hearse at the cemetery, 29 August 1971.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
88
Illustrated layout for an article on the Black Panthers in a Princeton University student magazine.
[Princeton, NJ], [28 October 1968]
Typescript with ink and collage illustration mounted on artist board, 18 x 23½ inches; light glue staining, minimal wear.
This is the original layout for an article published in Princeton’s short-lived radical student magazine, Prism. The article was written by a Princeton undergraduate and Black Panther member who signed only as “Khalid,” and offers a detailed centerfold exploration of the New Jersey Black Panthers, complete with a list of officers. The language is incendiary: “It’s going to come down to war in the streets. We’re talking about changing the whole structure of Western society. . . . The white man is only brave when he knows he’s got the gun and he knows you haven’t. Otherwise, he’s a scared motherfucker. There’s a message in that for Black people everywhere. Even on the Princeton campus.”
The article also includes a vivid description of Newark street life: “It does a Princeton Black good to hit Newark, to come out of Penn Station and walk down to Broad and Market (the Wallace stickers on that Market St. construction site notwithstanding). The minute you hit Market and Broad you know you’re in a city with a heavy, poor, and superior (i.e.) Black population. A Black can’t help but dig the contrasts at that center-city intersection: red neck laborers, liberal/conservative businessmen, poor white trash of all sorts, and Black people–Black people waiting on tables, waiting for the bus home into the slum.” This layout is illustrated with a dramatic 9-inch panther head, composed of a black-paper collage with inked detail.
With–a layout for another article in the same magazine, a back-page article titled “Bringing Back Black” by Bob Blockum, 15½ x 11 inches. It describes the effort to launch the Black Cultural Center of Trenton. The article is printed in white on black background, and is laid out in a decorative border of African-inspired art. The article is continued on another page (layout not present)
and–the published issue of Prism featuring these articles, printed in red and black. 24 pages, 17 x 11½ inches, on 6 folding sheets of newsprint; minimal wear. It also includes articles on presidential candidates Eldridge Cleaver and Dick Gregory, racism in Camden, NJ, and more.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
89
Peace and Freedom Party / Black Panther publication titled “All the Power to the People.”
Los Angeles, [1968]
4 pages, 17½ x 11¼ inches, on one folding sheet; toned, minimal wear.
The first page features a photograph and long original essay by Peace and Freedom presidential candidate Eldredge Cleaver, as well as a shorter note on his running mate Peggy Terry. The Panther logo is featured in the masthead. A long centerfold essay on race relations is titled “Racial Strife, War, Law & Order: All the Power to the People.” The rear page is devoted to local Los Angeles-area candidates and a summary of local initiatives: Free Huey, the grape boycott, and more. The 25 August killings of Tommy Lewis and two other Panthers are discussed. Apparently only one copy in OCLC (#40504002), at Northwestern University.
Estimate
$600 – $900
90
Special Bulletin, Black Panther Party, So. Calif. Chapter, for World Peace.
[Los Angeles?], circa early 1970
Illustrated. 8 pages, 9 x 12¼ inches, staple-bound, self-wrappers; minor toning; later signature of Bobby Seale on front page.
A compilation of articles, with the cover article “For World Peace” republished from the Black Panther Community News Service of 3 January 1970. None others traced in this format.
Estimate
$500 – $750
91
The Black Panther: Black Community News Service.
San Francisco, March 1969 to August 1971
43 issues (incomplete run) in one box; horizontal folds, generally minor wear; not collated.
Many of the issues contain revolutionary art by Emory Douglas. Highlights include the 30 August 1969 Bobby Seale “Kidnapped” cover; 1 November 1969 issue with the “Bobby-Huey Political Prisoners of USA Fascism” cover; and the 2 March 1971 issue denouncing Eldridge Cleaver (for the other half of the story, see lot 127). By year, the 43 issues include 17 issues from 1969 (one lacking the first leaf); 18 issues from 1970; and 8 issues from January to October 1971. With–“Message to America, Delivered on the 107th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation . . . by the Black Panther Party,” 4-page newsprint special dated 19 June 1970.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
92
Free Huey Rally, Bobby Hutton Memorial Park . . . Huey Must Be Set Free!
[Oakland, CA], 25 August [1968]
Poster, 22 x 17 inches; light staining, 2 diagonal folds, 3-inch closed tear, mounted to board along top and bottom margins.
This rally was held the day that Newton testified in his murder trial. It was held at Bobby Hutton Memorial Park, officially known as DeFremery Park, in Oakland. Stokely Carmichael appeared, the week after officially parting ways with SNCC, as did David Hilliard, Kathleen Cleaver, and Bobby Seale. One other example of this rally poster traced in OCLC, at Yale University.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
93
Edward arthur wilson, two lithographs.
Free Huey Rally, Oakland Auditorium . . . Featuring Stokely Carmichael.
Oakland, CA, 17 February 1968
Poster, 22 x 17 inches; minor staining on top and right edges.
This poster advertised the first of many Free Huey rallies. It attracted a crowd of 5000 to Oakland Auditorium to hear Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Betty Shabazz, Eldridge Cleaver and H. Rap Brown (the latter two not named here). The famous portrait of Newton in the fan-backed chair is featured at center. The Oakland Tribune story on the rally the next day noted that “a wicker chair in which Newton was once photographed for a widely distributed poster was placed empty in the center of the stage.” No other examples of this poster have been traced in OCLC or at auction.
The poster was designed by Lisa Lyons, whose work with the Panthers also included designing their famous logo. This copy came from her personal files, via a Thomaston Place auction, 14 February 2016, to the consignor.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
94
Edward arthur wilson, two lithographs.
Huey P. Newton Birthday Benefit Celebration.
16 February [1969]
Flier, 14 x 8½ inches; horizontal folds, minimal wear.
This event was arranged by the Newton-Cleaver Defense Committee at the Berkeley Community Theatre. We’ve seen a similar flier for another event held that same day down the coast in Hollywood. This one featured speeches by Kathleen Cleaver and Tom Hayden, a taped prison message from Newton, a screening of the Panther film “Prelude to a Revolution” and more. It is illustrated with Newton’s portrait and the Panther logo.
Estimate
$500 – $750
95
The Genius of Huey P. Newton.
Many illustrations. [7], 31, [1] pages. 8vo, original illustrated wrappers in orange and black, minimal wear.
First edition. Includes several of Newton’s “greatest hits,” including “Huey Newton to the Republic of New Africa,” 13 September 1969; “Message . . . on the Peace Movement”; “Prison, Where is Thy Victory?”; “Huey Newton Talks to The Movement”; “Functional Definition of Politics”; “The Genius of Huey P. Newton”; and the October 1966 Black Panther party Platform. Eldridge Cleaver writes in a 2 January 1970 introduction: “One can picture Huey as he was when he wrote them: hard pressed by pigs who he knew were plotting to kill him. With pigs breathing down his neck, Huey was racing against time that had almost run out to get the information down on paper. . . . Let no one think that the Black Panther Party has relinquished its demand that Huey be set free.” Illustrated with photographs of Newton and a portrait by Emory Douglas.
Estimate
$500 – $750
96
Set Bobby Free by Letting Him Speak.
Los Angeles, CA: 3 November [1969]
Flier, 14 x 8½ inches; minimal wear.
Flier for a protest in support of Bobby Seale at the Los Angeles Federal Building. It incorporates Emory Douglas art which would also be used on the cover of the Black Panther Community Newsletter, 8 November 1969.
Estimate
$400 – $600
97
You Can’t Jail the Revolution. Stop the Trial, Free the Conspiracy 8.
Chicago, circa 1969
Poster, 24 x 20 inches; minimal wear.
The text refers to the trial of SDS and Black Panther protesters at the August 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. The image references the Black Power salute of gold medalist Tommie Smith at the October 1968 Olympics. Similar to a slightly smaller two-color poster sold in Swann’s 7 May 2020 sale, lot 173, which lacked the contact text at bottom and referred to the “Chicago 8” rather than the “Conspiracy 8,” and featured a slightly different rendering of the same source image. The 28 East Jackson St. address given here was used by the “Conspiracy” legal defense fund in 1969 publications. 2 in OCLC; none traced at auction.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
98
[emory douglas, artist.]
Bobby, Huey: Political Prisoners of USA Fascism.
San Francisco, CA: Black Panther Party, circa 1970
Poster, 28½ x 22½ inches; minor wear including 5-inch light diagonal crease, faint footprint in upper right.
Depicts Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, both armed, with the title outlined in barbed wire. Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas, page 94 (variant image).
Estimate
$400 – $600
99
emory douglas; artist.
S’ils Condamnent Bobby Seale . . . Death to the Fascist Pigs.
Paris: Imprimerie N.P.P., undated
Poster, 25 x 17½ inches; moderate wear including 5 cello tape stains, a pair of 1½-inch closed tears, loss at 3 corners, tack holes, and horizontal fold.
A French reuse of the September 1970 Emory Douglas image captioned “We Will Not Hesitate to Either Kill or Die for Our Freedom,” illustrated in The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas, page 68. None in OCLC.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
100
People who Come out of Prison can Build up the Country . . . Free Bobby! Free All Political Prisoners.
Np, circa 1970
Poster, 22½ x 17½ inches; light wrinkling and minimal wear.
Depicts Seale breaking free from his handcuffs, over a quote from Ho Chi Minh. One example in OCLC (Pennsylvania State University) and none others traced at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
101
James daugherty, maquette for the social room of fairfield court housing project, stamford, ct.
Pair of flyers on the assassination of Fred Hampton, with a related letter.
Vp, December 1969 and January 1970
3 items, various sizes and conditions.
“A Chicago Seed Extra: When One of Us Falls, 1,000 will Take his Place.” 2 illustrated pages on one sheet, 17 x 11 inches; many folds, closed tears with cello tape repairs. A special issue of a Chicago underground newspaper issued two days after Hampton’s death, examining the facts of the case and urging donations to the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. Chicago, 6 December [1969].
“Indict Hanrahan!! . . . The Spirit of Fred Lives!!” Illustrated flier, 8½ x 7 inches; folds. Demands a demonstration at the home of Chicago State’s Attorney Edward V. Hanrahan, who had ordered the hit on Hampton just 9 days previously; also explains the positive work the Panthers had been doing in the community. [Chicago], 13 December [1969].
Letter from a young man named Mike from the Chicago suburbs, to his friend Polly in college, enclosing these pamphlets and expressing skepticism: “Enclosed is a leaflet I picked up at the conspiracy office. It was a last-minute extra to the Chicago Seed. The journalism is bad. Dig the message, though. . . . The enclosed leaflet is biased because the Chicago Seed is an underground biased newspaper. Let us wait for the investigation by the Justice Department to end before we formulate opinions.” [Skokie, IL], circa 3 January 1970 (per the postmark on the envelope and his “Late Happy New Year” comment).
Estimate
$500 – $750
102
“I Am a Revolutionary.” Fred Hampton, Deputy Chairman, Ill. Chapter, Black Panther Party.
Chicago, IL: Black Panther Party Ministry of Information, circa 1970
Poster, 18 x 24 inches, in red and black; minor wear along top edge.
Probably issued not long after Hampton’s December 1969 shooting by the Chicago police. None in OCLC, and we are aware of only one other at auction, at Swann, 1 March 2012.
Estimate
$500 – $750
103
Search & Destroy . . . Let’s End this Undeclared War.
Los Angeles, CA: L.A. Friends of the Panthers, 20 December [1969]
Flier, 11 x 8½ inches; minimal wear.
This event promised “mass meetings and workshops” to protest a recent police attack on the Black Panther’s Los Angeles headquarters and the recent police killing of Fred Hampton in Chicago. It is illustrated with a “Free Hot Breakfast for School Children” sign pocked with police bullets.
Estimate
$500 – $750
104
Pair of sample petitions to put community control of police on the ballot in Oakland and Berkeley.
Oakland and Berkeley, CA, circa 1969
Each [6] pages, 14 x 8½ inches, staple-bound; minor foxing and wear.
These two sample petitions detail a radical proposal to divide the police departments of Oakland and Berkeley into White and Black precincts, requiring officers of each to live in the precincts they serve, administered by elected neighborhood commissions. Each has a map showing the proposed boundaries, the full legal text of the proposed resolution, and 2 pages of blank petition forms. The completed petitions were to be returned to the National Committees to Combat Fascism, care of each city’s local Black Panther Party office. Each was marked prior to Xeroxing: “Example only, for other cities in America. All N.C.C.F. members, study thoroughly for decentralization of police.”
Newspaper reports show that more than 15,000 signatures were collected on these petitions before October 1970, and that the Berkeley resolution made it to the 7 April 1971 municipal election ballot as Proposition One, where it was soundly defeated.
Estimate
$400 – $600
105
stephen shames, photographer.
Angela Davis at Oakland’s DeFremery Park.
Np: Print Mint, circa 1970
Poster, 26 x 20 inches; tape around edges on verso, minor wear.
In this iconic photograph, Angela Davis is seen addressing a “Free Huey” rally at Oakland’s DeFremery Park on 12 November 1969. We trace no other examples in this poster format, either in OCLC or at auction.
Estimate
$600 – $900
106
Pair of Angela Davis centerfold portraits.
San Francisco, 1970-71
Posters on newsprint as described.
“Sister: You Are Welcome Here.” Poster, 22¾ x 15 inches, red and black on newsprint; horizontal fold as issued, minimal wear. Issued as the centerfold illustration of the Fall 1970 issue of Leviathan, with pages 18 and 15 on verso; offered here as part of the complete 32-page issue of this alternative newspaper. This was one of the first pro-Angela Davis posters, issued in reaction to the FBI wanted posters and a September Life Magazine article; its message evokes the welcome extended to fugitives on the Underground Railroad. See Beegan & Gustafson, Angela Davis, pages 30 and 59. San Francisco, CA, Fall 1970.
“Freedom for Angela Davis.” Poster, 22½ x 17 inches, orange and black on newsprint; folds as issued, minimal wear. Issued as the centerfold illustration for an International Women’s Day issue of People’s World; pages “F” and “C” appear on verso, including a long article on the Davis case. [San Francisco, CA]: International Union of Students, 6 March 1971.
Estimate
$500 – $750
107
Angela.
Sausalito, CA: Portal Publications, undated
Poster, 35 x 22½ inches, silk-screened on pink stock; 2 short printing creases off upper edge, minimal wear.
None others traced at auction, in OCLC or elsewhere.
Estimate
$300 – $400
108
barry shapiro, artist.
Angela.
Del Mar, CA: Fanshen Press, 1971
Poster, 22 x 16¼ inches; minimal wear; signed by the artist in lower margin.
A collage depicting Angela Davis behind bars within a clenched fist. Beegan & Gustafson, Angela Davis page 139.
Estimate
$400 – $600
109
We Must Free Angela Now.
Poster, 22½ x 16½ inches; cello tape remnants on verso, with resulting light spotting on front, minor wear.
Produced by the Black student magazine at U.C.L.A., the school where Davis was teaching when she stepped onto the world stage. None traced at auction or in OCLC; one copy on brown paper stock at the Center for Study of Political Graphics.
Estimate
$400 – $600
110
Sauvons Angela Davis. Manifestation . . . de la Place Fabien à la Bastille.
Paris: Province Impression, 3 October [1971]
Poster, 35¼ x 17½ inches; horizontal fold, faint soiling, minor wear including 3 closed tears of about 1 inch each.
Advertises a 1971 “Free Angela Davis” rally in Paris. One in OCLC, and none traced at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
111
[tymofiy lyashchuk], artist.
A “Free Angela Davis” poster from the Soviet Union.
[Ukraine, Soviet Union: Agitplakat, 1971?]
Screen print, 33¾ x 24 inches; several closed tears with cello tape repairs on verso; signed by the artist in pencil, 1975.
This Soviet take on the Free Angela Davis movement was issued in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or URSR (which looks like YPCP in Cyrillic script).
Estimate
$500 – $750
112
[alfredo rostgaard, designer.]
Angela Davis.
Poster, 21 x 13 inches; 2 horizontal folds, one short separation at fold, other minor wear.
Features a stylized portrait of Davis breaking free from handcuffs. Produced in Cuba by the Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Beegan & Gustafson, Angela Davis page 48.
Estimate
$500 – $750
113
Group of 4 illustrated Angela Davis posters.
Vp, circa 1970-71
Various sizes; minor wear.
“Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners.” Two posters in the same format featuring different photographs and quotes by Davis. Each 22½ x 17½ inches. Oakland, CA: Bay Area Committee to Free Angela Davis, circa 1970.
“Free Angela Davis Now!” 21½ x 16½ inches, illustrated with a photographic portrait; tack holes in corners. New York: New York Committee to Free Angela Davis, undated.
“Free Angela Davis.” 21¼ x 16½ inches; illustrated with a reproduction of a drawing. New York: New York Committee to Free Angela Davis, undated.
Estimate
$600 – $900
114
Group of 8 Angela Davis pinbacks, most illustrated.
New York and np, circa 1970-72
Pinbacks, mostly buttons from 1 to 1¾ inches across, and one oblong metal pin, 1½ x ¾ inches; condition generally strong.
“Angela for President”; “Libertad Para Angela Davis” (oblong); “Free Angela Davis” in Russian; “Free Angela,” illustrated, by N.G. Slater Corp., New York; “Free Angela,” unillustrated, by N.G. Slater Corp., New York; “Free Angela” in orange, no credit; “Free Angela Davis,” no credit; “I Gave to Free Angela” by N.G. Slater Corp., New York.
Estimate
$500 – $750
115
Group of Angela Davis ephemera.
Vp: New York and New Jersey Committees to Free Angela Davis, 1971-72
7 items, various sizes, condition generally strong.
“A Political Biography of Angela Davis.” 9 pages, staple-bound. New York, circa 1971.
“One Million People Sponsor Freedom for Angela Davis.” Blank petition, one page. Newark, NJ, circa February 1971.
“Calendar of a Frame-Up.” 4 pages, stapled. Newark, NJ, circa February 1971.
“No More Atticas!” illustrated flyer, printed in blue. [New York]: United Coalition for Angela Davis Day, 25 September [1971].
“People’s Petition Demanding Bail for Angela Davis.” Blank petition, one page. New York, circa June 1971.
“Act Now to Save Angela’s Life: Support the Fund Drive.” 2 illustrated pages, with Spanish text on verso; brittle with moderate wear. New York, January 1972.
“Exclusive: Angela Answers 13 Questions.” 4 pages on one folding sheet, reprinted from Muhammad Speaks. Newark, NJ, circa 1972.
Estimate
$400 – $600
116
Free the Soledad Brothers.
Berkeley, CA: Soledad Brothers Defense Committee, [1970-71]
Poster, 22½ x 17½ inches; minimal wear and offsetting.
On 13 January 1970, three Black inmates at Soledad Prison were shot by a prison guard for engaging in a fistfight. The ensuing investigation exonerated the guard; within an hour, another white prison guard was killed in retaliation. Prisoners George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo and John Clutchette were charged with the murder. Their defense quickly became a popular cause in activist circles; this poster featured a quote from Ho Chi Minh’s prison diary. Jackson was killed in a breakout attempt on 21 August 1971, shortly before his trial; he left his modest estate to the Black Panther Party. Drumgo and Clutchette were acquitted the following year.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
117
Voice of the Lumpen.
Frankfurt, Germany, [January] to December 1971
7 issues, each 10 to 20 pages, about 17 x 12 inches, on unbound folding sheets of newsprint; minor wear at folds and fore-edges. With a one-sheet “Voice of the Lumpen Manifesto” with a partial article on verso.
This newspaper was an unusual collaboration between radical German student groups and Black GI’s stationed in Germany, in an attempt to forge revolutionary solidarity across racial and national lines. The content draws heavily from Black Panther news gleaned from back in the States, but also has extensive information about the unique problems faced by the soldiers, including disciplinary hearings or abuse of soldiers who spoke out against racism. A 10-point manifesto printed in several issues mainly relates to the soldiers’ grievances, including a call for abolishing the Uniformed Court of Military Justice, freedom for war resistors, and an end to the military caste system. The newspaper was not popular among the officer ranks, and each issue bore a disclaimer along the lines of “This paper is legal, but the pigs will probably bust anyone caught reading it.” The first three issues have a printed slip tipped to the front page, dated 14 May 1971 and protesting the recent arrest of co-editor Larry Barnes.
Estimate
$600 – $900
118
rafael morante, artist.
Power to the People, George.
[Cuba], OSPAAAL, 1971
Poster, 13 x 20¾ inches; tack holes in corners, mount remnants on verso, minimal dampstaining.
This poster memorializes the death of activist George Jackson, who was killed during an alleged August 1971 breakout at San Quentin Prison. The colors of the American flag are shown flowing out of Jackson’s bullet wounds. The title is also given in Spanish, French, and Arabic.
Estimate
$300 – $400
119
Anti-War, African Liberation, Voter Registration, Survival Conference . . . 10,000 Free Full Bags of Groceries.
Oakland, CA, 24 June 1972
Illustrated flier, 14 x 10 inches, printed in red and black; folds, wrinkling, minor foxing.
A Panther event at Oakland Auditorium. 5 speakers are listed with their photographs, including Elaine Brown, Bobby Seale, and Ron Dellums. Each free bag of groceries was promised to hold a dozen eggs; also on offer were 10,000 sickle cell anemia tests, and 2,500 pairs of women’s shoes.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
120
Serving the People Body & Soul: Free Bar-B-Que & Free Food.
[Los Angeles, CA], 23 May 1971
Flier, 14 x 8½ inches; horizontal fold, minor wear.
Advertises an event at the Black Panther Party Community Information Center in Los Angeles. None others traced.
Estimate
$400 – $600
121
War Behind Walls.
San Francisco, CA: Peoples Press, September 1971
16 pages, 17½ x 11½ inches, on 4 folding sheets of newsprint; horizontal fold, light toning and minimal wear.
A newspaper-format publication in reaction to the Attica revolt and killing of Soledad Brother George Jackson. Includes a centerfold history of California’s prison rebellions, 1961-1971; and 3 poems by Ericka Huggins.
Estimate
$400 – $600
122
Black Panther Party matchbook.
Oakland, CA, circa 1968
Printed cover on pink card stock, 3¾ x 1½ inches when open, with matches attached by staple as issued; 17 matches present and 3 removed, striking surface used, light rust to staple, other minor wear.
The front and rear covers have a tiny reproduction of the Black Panther News Service masthead, the Black Panther logo,”Subscribe to Survive,” and the party’s Oakland address. “Free Huey” is printed on the top edge, and a subscription form is printed on the interior. We are not aware of any other examples.
Estimate
$600 – $900
123
Group of 3 newsprint posters issued by the New Haven chapter.
New Haven, CT: New Haven Chapter, Black Panther Party, circa 1970
Each 23 x 17½ inches; folds, toning, minor dampstaining.
“He Came from the Mountaintop . . . Fred Hampton, Deputy Chairman, Illinois Chapter . . . Murdered by Fascist Pigs.”
“What is a Pig?” featuring art by Emory Douglas.
“On Landscape Art: It is good only when it shows the oppressor hanging from a tree by his motherf–kin neck,” also featuring art by Emory Douglas.
Estimate
$500 – $750
124
Group of 3 newsprint publications.
Vp, 1969-70
Each about 16½ x 11½ inches; toning, minor wear.
“What do the Panthers Stand For.” [8] pages. New York: The Committee to Defend the Panther 21, [May 1969].
Cleaver, “On the Constitution” / Newton, “Towards a New Constitution.” [4] pages. Np, [June 1970].
Cleaver. “The Black Man’s Stake in Vietnam.” [4] pages. Issued as a supplement to the Black Panther newsletter; features cover art by Emory Douglas. Np, [2 May 1970].
Estimate
$400 – $600
125
Group of 30 different Black Panther and Black Power pinbacks.
Vp, circa early 1970s and undated
Various sizes ranging from 1 to 2 inches across; condition generally strong.
These buttons include feature Bobby Seale, Ericka Huggins, Huey Newton, Fred Hampton, Eldridge Cleaver, Malcolm X, the Soledad Brothers, and the New York Panther 21 as well as more generic clenched fists, the Panther logo, “Black Power” and more. One “Free All Political Prisoners” button is printed with the signature of Panther artist Lisa Lyons on the edge. Among the manufacturers are AAA Novelty of Washington and N.G. Slater of New York, but most are undated and uncredited. With–a “Black Power” wooden token reading “Burn Baby Burn . . . Where Next?”
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
126
Group of 5 pamphlets.
Vp, 1968-69 and undated
Each about 10 x 7 inches in original wrappers; minor wear.
Eldridge Cleaver. “Education and Revolution.” 9 pages. Np, undated.
Eldridge Cleaver. “On the Ideology of the Black Panther Party.” [2], 11, [3] pages, with cover art apparently by Emory Douglas. San Francisco, CA, undated.
“Huey Newton Talks to the Movement.” 14, [2] pages. Chicago: Students for a Democratic Society, August 1968.
“The Black Panther Party: Man and Reality.” [16] pages. [Boston?], circa 1969.
Michael “Cetewayo” Tabor. “Capitalism Plus Dope Equals Genocide.” 10, [6] pages. [New York?], circa 1969.
Estimate
$400 – $600
127
Issues of “Right On!” and “Babylon” put out by the Revolutionary Peoples Communications Network.
New York, April-December 1971
7 issues, each 24 pages, 16½ x 11¼ inches, on 6 unbound folding sheets; minor wear.
These two related New York newspapers were launched by Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver after their split with the Black Panther Party. Offered here are issues 1, 4, [6?] and 7 of Right On!, and 1, 2, and 3 of Babylon, which replaced it.
Issue #1 of Right On! (3 April 1971) is subcaptioned “Black Community News Service, Black Panther Party,” and is designed to look much like the California-based weekly. It positions itself as the true heir to the Black Panther tradition, with two long editorials denouncing the David Hilliard-Emory Douglas faction. Issue #4 keeps the Panther logo but drops the Black Panther name and is now issued by the Cleavers’ new Revolutionary Peoples Communications Network. Apparently the final issue of Right On! was dated 1 November 1971. That same day, the Revolutionary Peoples Communications Network launched a similar paper under the title Babylon.
The inaugural 1 November issue of Babylon features some of the same articles as Right On! This lot includes issues 1, 2, and 3; we can trace only one more issue which followed these, in January 1972. Mumia Abu-Jamal is listed as the Philadelphia correspondent for Babylon and delivered a scathing cover article on his city’s new mayor Frank Rizzo in issue #2.
Estimate
$500 – $750
128
Pair of illustrated Black Liberation Army membership lists issued by the San Francisco police.
San Francisco, CA, 11 and 30 January 1973
Each 4 mimeographed pages (2 corner-stapled sheets) with a total of 64 reproduced photograph; staples rusted, moderate wear, ink doodle on one page, faint musty scent.
The Black Liberation Army was an underground revolutionary organization with close ties and overlapping membership with the Black Panthers, active from at least 1970 to 1981. As described in these police bulletins, “subjects are followers of Eldridge Cleaver and are . . . dedicated to killing police officers, attacking police stations, and the armed robberies of lending institutions.” 64 members are listed, of whom 15 had active arrest warrants and 6 were already in custody. Photographs of each (mostly mug shots) follow the lists. Joanne Chesimard (Assata Shakur) is listed as “wanted” in the second bulletin; she remains of the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list. Little information regarding the Black Liberation Army has survived. Not only do we not trace any other examples of these bulletins, but the listed names do not appear to be readily available.
Estimate
$500 – $750
129
Hell No! We Won’t Go!
Np, circa 1967
Poster, 17 x 22 inches; minor wear and foxing.
Depicts Stokely Carmichael with his Black Power salute. During an anti-war speech he gave at Tougaloo College on 11 April 1967, he had the crowd chanting “Hell no, we ain’t going!” Three days later. “Hell no, we won’t go!” was being chanted at an anti-war rally in New York City, and became a rallying cry of the movement. None traced at auction.
Estimate
$600 – $900
130
[alfredo rostgaard, designer.]
Black Power / Retalition to Crime: Revolutionary Violence.
Poster, 22 x 13 inches, in red and black, with title in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic; minimal wear at top edge, lone pin hole.
Estimate
$500 – $750
131
Black Gold . . . I am the Black Woman, Mother of Civilization.
New York: Truth Posters, 1969
Poster, 25¼ x 19 inches; moderate wear including tack holes, mount remnants on verso, light wrinkling, and loss of about an inch from the upper left corner.
This poster features a series of first-person commandments for “the Black Woman, Mother of Civilization.” Overtly anti-feminist, it states that “through me the Black man produces his nation . . . I care and make our home comfortable for my Husband . . . The best that I can give my nation is strong, healthy, intelligent children who will grow to be the leaders of tomorrow.” It was advertised in the 14 February 1969 issue of the Nation of Islam newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, as “the hottest poster in New York!!” Shulamith Firestone, in her 1970 feminist classic Dialectic of Sex, criticizes this “much-circulated poster,” and the text has been republished in many formats since. In 1970, the design was incorporated into the cover of the Nina Simone album Black Gold. However, we can trace no examples of this oft-discussed poster at auction, in OCLC, or elsewhere on the Internet. Here it is.
Estimate
$500 – $750
132
TCB: United Front, Taking Care of Business.
[Los Angeles, 1968]
Poster, 20 x 15 inches; moderate foxing and light wrinkling.
A powerful Afrocentric graphic. It was advertised by the Los Angeles Free Press Bookstore as a “new poster” in their 9 November 1968 issue, page II:6.
Estimate
$600 – $900
133
United.
Np: Afro-Graphics, Inc., 1969
Screen print, 26 x 25¼ inches; minor dampstaining on bottom edge, minimal wear.
We find no information on Afro-Graphics, Inc., and no other examples of this poster at auction, in OCLC, or elsewhere.
Estimate
$500 – $750
134
Power to the People.
Silkscreen poster, 35½ x 23½ inches, printed in purple on heavy blue paper; minor wear.
Gemini Rising did another similar poster with the same title, but this one features a photographic image of a fist, rather than a stylized one. None others traced at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
135
bible, charles; artist.
Black Art.
New York: Afro-Arts, 1970
Poster, 22¼ x 17½ inches; uneven toning, minor dampstaining, and minor wear.
Features the text of a poem by Amiri Baraka, here credited as LeRoi Jones. None traced at auction, and just one copy in OCLC, at the University of California at Berkeley.
Estimate
$200 – $300
136
(black power)
Pair of posters: “Right On” and “Hair is Beautiful.”
Np, undated
Right On: Silk-screen poster, 28½ x 20 inches, minor wear. Hair is Beautiful: day-glo poster by H.A. Stromberg and Keke Stewart, 28¼ x 19¾ inches; minimal wear.
Estimate
$500 – $750
137
Right On.
Atlanta, GA: Hiatt Enterprises, 1972
Black light poster, 22 x 35 inches, in green, black and red, featuring a clenched fist; light creasing along left edge, otherwise minimal wear.
Many of the posters of this era were produced by small and short-lived operations. Hiatt Enterprises began running classified ads in the Atlanta newspapers in 1969, looking to buy gold and silver. They kept taking out the classified ads, but moved into selling wholesale posters, patches and incense in October 1970. Their distributor, 24th Century Distributors of 155 Forsyth Street in Atlanta, came to an end later in 1972. The Atlanta Constitution ran a classified ad for a 23 August 1972 bankruptcy sale at that address, selling “clothes, desks, fixtures, 8-track tapes, and assorted merchandise.”
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
138
Blanche lazzell, cape cod cottage; the coffee pot.
Group of 12 Black Power pinback buttons.
Vp, circa early 1970s
12 items, various sizes ranging from ¾ to 3½ inches across; condition generally strong.
Buttons featuring clenched fists, “Black Power,” “Unity,” “Right On,” “Unite,” and “Power to the People.” Most have no manufacturer noted; others were created in Detroit, New York, and Hempstead, NY, and one clenched-fist button was made in Japan. One is dated 1970, and the others are undated.
Estimate
$500 – $750
139
[alice crolley browning.]
It’s Fun To Be Black.
Chicago: Browning Publications, 1973
Profusely illustrated. [1], 23 pages. 12mo, 5½ x 4¼ inches, staple-bound; minimal wear.
An entertaining little cartoon book with unexpected heft. Alice Crolley Browning (1907-1985) was an author, editor, founder of the International Black Writers Conference, and longtime Chicago elementary school teacher. This small pamphlet is unsigned, but also appears in her papers at the Chicago Public Library. Described as “Tiny Giants Series #2,” it was a sequel to the author’s even scarcer “It’s No Fun to Be Black” from 1972. The language is hipper and more militant than one might expect from a retired teacher. Vignettes include “It’s fun to go to the Loop and see Black Panthers slinking all over . . . selling Black Panther News” and “It’s fun to see all the Black mayors and realize that there will be a Black president of the U.S.A., one of these days.” She also name-checks poet Sam Greenlee, James Brown, Dick Gregory, and Jesse Jackson. The lively illustrations are signed “RTMc.” 5 in OCLC.
Estimate
$400 – $600
140
paul cuffe.
Invoice drawn up and signed by perhaps the young nation’s leading Black merchant.
[Dartmouth, MA], 20 August 1800
Autograph Document Signed, one sheet, 6½ x 7¾ inches, with signature and docketing on verso; folds, minor dampstaining .
The sea captain, shipbuilder and abolitionist Paul Cuffe (1759-1817) was one of the first successful Black businessmen in America. The son of a formerly enslaved father and a Wampanoag Indian mother, he developed his own shipyard, captained whaling ships, and made two trips to help the British colony from freed slaves at Sierra Leone. This invoice was written and signed by Paul Cuffe in 1799 and 1800, then in his early forties and already one of the leading merchants in what is now Westport, MA. It records a series of small transactions with a near neighbor, John Davis. Starting in September 1799, Cuffe billed Davis for carting several scow-loads of wood and ashes across the river, plus 2 gallons of tar, for a total of $5.00. Davis repaid him in part with 95 feet of clapboards. Cuffe then added additional charges for the repair of Davis’s boat Abigail, for allowing Davis to use his cider mill, and for the wharfage of wood. The account was settled in full circa August 1800, presumably with the payment of $6.32 in cash to Cuffe. The receipt would have been given to Davis as proof of payment and filed among his papers. In the grand scheme of Cuffe’s business activities, these were not major transactions, but they provide an interesting insight into his daily activities and community relationships during a period before his activism brought him a level of fame to match his fortune.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
141
Reginald marsh, bathers at a pier, new york * bathers swimming.
Cabinet card of barbers in front of the shop of Prof. W.H. Jones in Keokuk, Iowa.
[Keokuk, IA], circa 1910?
Albumen photograph, 4 x 5¼ inches, on original plain mount; minimal wear.
William H. Jones (1844-1924) was a longtime barber in Keokuk. One of the highlights of his career was when he accompanied President Theodore Roosevelt on a leg of his Mississippi River tour from Keokuk to Memphis on 1 October 1907.
Estimate
$400 – $600
142
Pair of barbershop interior views from Louisiana.
[Alexandria, LA, circa 1914 and 1922?]
Pair of mounted photographs, 4 x 6¾ and 5 x 6¾ inches; each cropped to the photograph, moderate foxing and wear, pencil note on verso of earlier photo.
Two evocative images of early 20th-century barber shops staffed by Black barbers. What seems to be the earlier of the two images shows 4 barbers standing at their chairs, and an assistant (bearing a whisk broom). In the background can be seen a sign for Rapides Bank and the store of Jonas Rosenthal, placing the scene in Alexandria, LA. The later image shows 3 barbers at their chairs, with one of the chairs holding a young White boy as a customer. The window sign reads “George’s Barber Shop.” The barber in the foreground of this photograph is almost certainly the same man at the rear chair in the earlier image.
George’s Barber Shop at 1210 2nd Street was in operation from at least 1922 to 1941. It was managed by George W. Moore (circa 1883-1942), a Black man who operated a “white shop” according to the Alexandria Town Talk of 10 August 1933. City directories show that prior to launching George’s, Moore was a barber at the Rapides Hotel from at least 1912 to 1914; perhaps the earlier image was taken at the hotel.
Estimate
$400 – $600
143
Group of Black insurance company memorabilia.
Vp, 1939-46 and undated
9 items, as described.
Printed portrait of A.W. Holmes, Founder of the National Ideal Benefit Society, undated.
Printed portrait of Asa T. Spaulding. executive with North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, circa 1960s.
Policy issued by the Afro-American Life Insurance Company of Jacksonville, Florida, 24 June 1946.
Conference program from the National Negro Insurance Association, 8-13 May 1939.
Pair of clippings.
Conference badge from the National Negro Insurance Association, 20 June 1944.
Button from National Negro Insurance Week, 13-17 May 1946.
Retractable measuring tape from North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, Durham, NC, undated.
Estimate
$500 – $750
144
Negro Directory [for Omaha], 1947-48.
Omaha, NE: P.C. Doss & Co., 1948
148 pages. 8vo, original illustrated wrappers, minimal wear; toning and minimal wear to contents.
Among the names listed here are jazz saxophonist Preston Love, described as “Musician, Count Basie”; the late great St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson, here a 13-year-old boy listed as a student at Kellom Elementary and living with his widowed mother; Mildred Brown, publisher of the Omaha Star; pioneering journalist Lucille Skaggs Edwards (here listed as a notary public); activist Harrison J. Pinkett; and thousands more. Local advertisements can be seen on every page. In the rear of the volume are a directory of Omaha’s Black-owned businesses and 4 pages devoted to nearby Council Bluffs, Iowa.
3 editions of this directory have been traced: 1941, the present 1948 one, and 1950. Only one example of the present edition has been traced, at Omaha Public Library.
Estimate
$600 – $900
145
Black and Brown Stamp Album.
Chicago: Black & Brown Distributing Company, [circa 1969]
[48] printed pages, with 2 strips containing 42 unused James Brown stamps laid in, and 5 additional stamps pasted in. Original color pictorial wrappers, oblong 12mo (5 x 6 1/4 inches), minimal wear, light paper clip stain.
This project was the brainchild of star football player Art Powell, whose career had been curtailed by injuries. The project was initially launched in early 1969 in San Francisco, where retailers in the Black community were issued stamps featuring the image of singer James Brown, which they could give to their customers with each purchase. The loyal customers were then able to redeem a full album of 1200 stamps for a $3.00 discount. The blank pages are filled with promotional slogans for the project. See “Retailing: Soul Stamps” in Time Magazine, 11 July 1969. By 1971, the stamps were being distributed in 10 cities, and the albums were being printed in Chicago (as with the present example).
Estimate
$400 – $600
The Civil Rights Movement
146
Omaha’s Riot in Story and Picture.
Omaha, NE: Educational Publishing Company, circa 1919
Numerous illustrations. [32] pages. Oblong 8vo, original printed wrappers, moderate wear, nearly separated and detached; vertical fold, moderate wear and minor dampstaining to contents, several pages detached.
The broad outlines of the Omaha race riot of 1919 follow a well-rehearsed script: a Black man named Will Brown is accused of raping a white woman; a mob of 10,000 gathers around the police station where he is jailed; he is eventually dragged out of his cell and burned. More uniquely to Omaha, the city’s newly elected white progressive mayor and its police force made strenuous efforts to save Brown, barricaded in the fourth floor, though they eventually gave him up. Mayor Smith ventured out among the mob and said “If you must hang somebody, then let it be me.” They obliged, and the mayor was hung from a lamp post–he was cut down by police when just short of death. Two members of the mob were killed, and large portions of the city looted or burned. 120 rioters were indicted, though not one served any prison time. This well-illustrated anti-mob pamphlet takes the perspective that “publicity is the surest cause for lawlessness” and properly describes Will Brown as the victim.
Estimate
$500 – $750
147
“Colored Upstairs” sign from a Georgia cinema.
[Sylvania, GA], circa late 1940s?
White and black paint on metal, 3 x 18 inches; two screw holes, moderate scratching and rust.
This sign was used at the Dixie Theatre in Sylvania, GA, near the South Carolina border, also known as the Sylvia or Grand Theatre, which was in operation by 1949.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
148
Blanche lazzell, cape cod cottage; the coffee pot.
Dallas bus segregation sign.
Dallas, TX: Texlite-Dallas, circa 1936-56
Metal and enamel sign, 7 x 12 inches, with original metal mounting holes; moderate staining and soiling.
“Notice: it is required by law, under penalty of fine of $5.00 to $25.00, that white and negro passengers must occupy the respective space or seats indicated by signs in this vehicle.” Texas had long segregated their public transportation, but it was not until 1936 that the state penal code dictated that all public carriers must be segregated, as stated here. Getty Images holds two photographs showing this same sign design, taken shortly after a 1956 Supreme Court desegregation ruling. One shows a city worker removing one of these signs in compliance with the ruling, and in another, five smiling Black women are seen ignoring the sign’s now obsolete instructions.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
149
Door from the “colored” washroom of a North Carolina fertilizer plant.
Marshville, NC, circa 1940s?
Wooden swinging door, 59½ x 23¼, one inch thick plus one-inch metal handle, with “COLORED” painted across top in gray; screw holes where removed from hinges, minor wear and soiling.
The door is said to come from a former Farmers Cooperative Exchange plant in Marshville, NC.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
150
guy endore.
The Crime at Scottsboro.
Hollywood, CA: Hollywood Scottsboro Committee, [1937 or 1938]
[2], 40, [3] pages. 4to, 8 x 7¾ inches, original illustrated wrappers, chipped and worn, tape repairs to front wrapper; only minor wear to contents; signatures of Roy Wright and Olen Montgomery on front flyleaf.
Inked on the flyleaf are the names of two of the nine Scottsboro defendants, Roy Wright and Olen Montgomery, who were both released in July 1937 after 6 years on Death Row. Beneath in a later hand is the date of their arrest, 1931. We have found no other examples of their signatures for comparison, but believe these to be authentic.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
151
Group of press photographs and ephemera relating to the Scottsboro Boys.
Vp, 1932-37 and undated
5 items, various sizes; condition generally strong except as noted.
Well-known group photograph of the 9 Scottsboro Boys surrounded by armed guards, captioned “The nine negroes concerned in the Scottborough trial,” with inked stamp of the Keystone View Company of London. Early copy print, 8 x 10 inches.
Photograph of 4 of the Scottsboro Boys in the office of attorney Samuel Leibowitz in New York, 7 x 9 inches, with Associated Press caption label and inked stamp on verso, 26 July 1937.
Angelo Herndon. “The Scottsboro Boys: Four Freed! Five to Go!” 15, [1] pages, staple-bound. New York: Workers Library, August 1937.
“From Scottsboro Comes the Cry of Mothers for Us to Help.” 4 printed pages, worn and toned. Np: International Labor Defense, circa 1932
Double-sided leaflet, 6 x 4½ inches, for the “Scottsboro Boys Victory Celebration and Ethiopia Defense” mass meeting held by the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, 12 April [1935].
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
152
Archive of NAACP correspondence from James Weldon Johnson, Walter White and more.
Vp, 1923-44
50 items in one folder: 43 letters addressed to Isadore Martin as president of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (most from Walter White and James Weldon Johnson), and 7 typescript carbons of responses retained by Martin; generally minor wear and toning.
The author and activist James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938), best known as the lyricist of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” wrote 7 of these letters–most in his official capacity as Executive Secretary of the NAACP between 1921 and 1929. He also sent a 1933 letter signed as “Jim” on the letterhead of Fisk University, regretting that he would be unable to attend the next board meeting, and hoping that Joel Spingarn may be convinced to remain as president.
33 of the letters (including 3 postcards and one incomplete unsigned letter) are from Walter F. White (1893-1955) as assistant secretary from 1923 to 1930, and then as Johnson’s successor as Executive Secretary through 1944. Some of these relate to specific civil rights cases: investigating discrimination at a Philadelphia junior high school pool on 11 October 1923, or celebrating progress on “Jim Crow coaches on the Havana Special out of Pennsylvania Station” on 24 June 1931. Other letters discuss possible conference speakers such as Jane Addams, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Clarence Darrow. His 29 April 1932 letter looks back on history regarding a memorial to John Brown at Harper’s Ferry: “We might as well close up shop if we do not challenge soon and vigorously this more or less united and organized campaign to discredit the Abolitionists, the Negro and everything the N.A.A.C.P. stands for.”
Among the other letters is a Letter Signed from NAACP co-founder Mary White Ovington (1865-1951), acknowledging birthday greetings, New York, 11 April 1935.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
153
Correspondence between NAACP leader Walter White and a white journalist, debating the merits of the “Negro press.”
Vp, April-October 1943
10 items: 2 Letters Signed by Walter White, 3 other letters from NACCP offices, 2 memoranda compiled by the NAACP, and 3 retained carbon typescripts of letters by Robert R. Gros. 15 pages, each 11 x 8½ inches; folds, staples, minimal wear.
Robert Richard Gros (1915-1997) was a publicist for Pacific Gas and Electric who doubled as a popular lecturer on current events, interviewing important world figures and then sharing his impressions with the public. In February 1943, he interviewed NAACP Executive Secretary Walter F. White (1893-1955) about the “growing race problem in America.” In April, he followed up with a long letter to White, proposing that “the American Negro himself must bear a large share of the blame.” In particular, he faulted the “Negro press” for “trying to find some race discrimination . . . in even the most innocuous incident.”
White, then at the peak of an impressive career as an activist, responded with remarkable thoroughness and patience. Over the course of several letters, he provided dozens of examples of the very real problems faced by his community, and the important role which the press played in addressing them. He also gathered and abstracted 10 rebuttals from editors across the country, including his eventual NAACP successor Roy Wilkins of the New York Crisis. The exchange concludes with a final letter by Gros, who appears to have been at least somewhat enlightened.
Estimate
$400 – $600
154
Group of 13 NAACP pinback buttons.
Vp, 1920 and 1948-69, undated
Various sizes, minimal to minor wear.
The earliest and smallest button reads simply “N.A.A.C.P. 1920,” and is just 5/8-inch across. The others mostly read “Member NAACP,” are about ¾-inch across, and are dated 1948, 1950, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1968, and 1969. Another undated button an inch across reads “NAACP Membership Drive.”
Estimate
$500 – $750
155
zora neale hurston.
A Negro Deplores the Segregation Decision.
Richmond, VA: Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties, 1955
2 pages on one sheet, 11 x 8½ inches; light paper clip stain, staple hole and slight paper loss in upper margin.
The author Zora Neale Hurston was an outspoken Republican and came out against the Brown vs. Board of Education desegregation ruling. She argued that it was undignified to beg for inclusion in white institutions, and that efforts to improve Black schools would be more fruitful. Her arguments, as published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, were music to the ears of the white strict segregationists who called themselves the Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties. They published this flier, which consisted of two clippings on Hurston’s views, and their short note at the end: “It is our sincere belief that the feeling of this noted Negro authoress is shared by millions of other fine people, both Negro and white.”
With–two similar fliers issued by the same organization in 1955: “Negro Editor Urges His Race to Put First Things First” and “A Negro Attacks Integration.”
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
156
Group of 17 press photographs of the integration of Little Rock’s Central High School.
Little Rock, AR, September to October 1957
Various sizes; most captioned in the print, with notes or inked stamps, a few cropped or with later stickers on verso.
These photographs begin with the first attempts by brave students to integrate Little Rock High School, where they were turned away by Arkansas National Guard troops. One seems especially timely today: two girls “watch biology film on television as the first of a series of televised classes began today for students locked out of their class rooms in integration dispute.” Most of the photographs depict the arrival of the 101st Airborne Division and their work escorting students into the building on and after 26 September. With–3 later Little Rock civil rights-related photographs, 1959, 1963 and 1968.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
157
Correspondence regarding Ralph Bunche’s rejection by a New York tennis club.
Queens, NY, July 1959
9 letters and telegrams to Queens borough president John T. Clancy, and one retailed letter written by him; generally minor wear.
Ralph Johnson Bunche (1904-1971) was one of the most famous diplomats in the United States. With a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard, he had played an important role in the founding of the United Nations. He was the chief mediator in the negotiations which brought temporary peace in the Israeli-Palestine conflict, for which he won the 1949 Nobel Peace Prize.
With these credentials, he applied to join the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, NY in 1959. He was rejected on the basis of his race–the club explicitly excluded Black applicants. The Queens borough president, an Irish-American named John T. Clancy, took a public stance on behalf of Bunche in this conflict.
Offered here are the letters Clancy received in response, which show the wide-ranging reactions to his principled stand. A Jewish woman is outraged at the club’s “recent show of bigotry,” while a Jewish man appreciates Clancy’s efforts to “assure equal treatment for all in our community” (the club also barred Jewish members). The Rev. Emmer Booker of a local A.M.E. church praised Clancy’s “forthright and courageous statement,” and the parent’s association of a local school also praised his stand. Two letter writers offered tepid support but mainly complained at length about Clancy’s failure to protest similar discrimination against Catholic teachers at Queens College.
On the other end of the spectrum, three constituents were not pleased. One man, signing only as “a white taxpayer,” accuses Clancy of having “sold his soul for a lousy nigger vote” and asks him to “save us from becoming an African jungle.” It gets worse, if you care to read more. Another, signing as “an American of the Jewish faith,” was more polite in their bigotry, explaining that “there are plenty of Negro clubs, where Negroes can feel much more at home, and awkward situations can be avoided.” Finally, a Kew Gardens woman insists “I do not hate colored people,” but repeats several scurrilous personal rumors about Bunche, says “he acts like a stooge stirring up trouble,” and complains that Black fans did not come to cheer Black tennis great Althea Gibson when she competed in a tournament at the club in 1950.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the supportive letter writers sign their names, while two of the three racist responders sign anonymously. Queens has long been recognized as one of the most diverse places in the world, but also as the seat of deeply entrenched racism: home of the 1986 Howard Beach murder and of fictional television bigot Archie Bunker. In these letters to the borough president, both sides of Queens are on full display.
Also included is a letter Clancy sent to tennis sponsor Harcourt Davis in New Jersey, urging him to move the prestigious Davis Cup tournament away from the West Side club because of its “rank prejudice and discrimination . . . against our Negro and Jewish citizens.” The letter was returned to sender, as Clancy apparently did not have the inside scoop on contacting wealthy tennis benefactors.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
158
Pair of photographs of a CORE sit-in at a New Orleans Woolworth’s lunch counter.
New Orleans, LA, 9 September 1960
Original prints, 8 x 10 inches, with original typed captions and inked date stamps on verso, also later collection stamps, one bearing inked stamp of the New Orleans Times-Picayune and photographer R. Uribe; one photo crisp and clear, the other with moderate staining.
These photographs depict one of the first of the lunch counter sit-ins which swept the United States in the early 1960s. 7 young members of the Congress on Racial Equality (5 Black, 2 White) sat at the Woolworth’s counter in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The staff refused to serve them; they refused to leave. The stand-off ended almost 5 hours later with their arrest. These photographs are the original prints from the files of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, taken by their staff photographer Ralph Uribe.
Estimate
$500 – $750
159
Pair of armbands issued to Massachusetts members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
[Boston?], circa early 1960s
Strips of felt, 4 x 14 inches, one blue and one white, each embroidered “Mass. Unit, S.C.L.C.”; folds, minor wear and soiling.
Estimate
$500 – $750
160
[william hudson, photographer.]
Iconic photograph of police dogs attacking a Birmingham protestor.
Birmingham, AL, 3 May 1963 (December 1963 print)
Photograph, 7 x 9 inches, with Associated Press caption label and inked stamp on verso, along with Post-Dispatch newspaper morgue stamp dated 1964 and inked caption “Race Discrimination, Ala.”; minimal wear.
In April and May 1963, Martin Luther King led a major campaign to draw attention to Birmingham, Alabama, then known as the most segregated city in America. During this campaign, King was arrested and wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail. Two weeks after his release, local students filled the downtown streets for another protest, which Sheriff Bull Connor dispersed with attack dogs and high-powered water cannons. Associated Press photographer Bill Hudson took this shot (the most famous image of his long career) of a German Shepherd lunging at student Walter Gadsden, which appeared on the front page of the next day’s New York Times.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
161
danny lyon, photographer.
One Man, One Vote.
Atlanta, GA: Lincoln Lithograph Company, circa 1963
Poster, 22 x 14 inches; horizontal fold, paper clip stain on verso. minimal wear.
Part of the important series of posters featuring the work of photographer Danny Lyon. This one uses SNCC’s voter registration slogan, “One Man, One Vote,” illustrated with an elderly rural Black man whose vote deserved to be counted as much as anyone else’s.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
162
Give Canned Food and Supplies.
Poster, 22¼ x 17¼ inches; unrelated pencil still-life drawing on verso, minimal wear.
“The jobs of Negroes in Mississippi and Alabama are in danger because they registered to vote. Give what you can to help them hold out in their fight against discrimination!” The committee’s honorary chairman was Councilman Tom Bradley, later the first Black mayor of Los Angeles.
Estimate
$600 – $900
163
Pennant from the March on Washington.
Washington, 28 August 1963
Felt pennant, 11½ x 22½ inches, with stenciled lettering and illustration; minor wear including 4 small holes.
The lettering reads “Freedom March, Washington, D.C.” with date, and an inset bust of President Lincoln and the Capitol reading “Let’s All Join for Equality Now for All Americans 1863 1963–They Shall Not Have Died in Vain,” quoting from the Gettysburg Address.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
164
louis lo monaco.
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom August 28, 1963: We Shall Overcome.
New York: Urban League, [1963]
Pictorial paper portfolio, 11 x 9¼ inches, with seven leaves, printed in red, blue, and black: introduction leaf, contents leaf, and five collage prints by Lo Monaco, plus two additional insert cards; minimal wear.
From the introduction: “This collection of graphic collages has been created specifically as a memento for those who participated in the historic March on Washington for Freedom and Jobs on August 28, 1963. It depicts man’s inhumanity, his cruelty to his fellow human being. This memento, we believe, will inspire us to assert man’s decency and goodness through an understanding of anguish.” The introduction is signed in facsimile by the march leaders including Martin Luther King Jr., A. Philip Randolph, James Farmer, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney M. Young Jr.
This is the most pristine example of the portfolio we have handled. It is accompanied by two additional insert cards: an uncompleted card to pledge commitment to the ideals of the March; and a card offering a parable of racial prejudice titled “An Indian Lesson,” produced by the “6200 Champlain Avenue Block Club” [Chicago].
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
"WE SHALL OVERCOME"
165
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom . . . Lincoln Memorial Program.
[New York], 28 August 1963
4 pages, 8½ x 5½ inches, on one folding sheet; clean and crisp.
Issued for participants in the March on Washington. It begins with an 18-point program of events, starting with a rendition of the National Anthem by Marian Anderson, remarks by Dr. King and more. In the center is a long joint statement on the purpose of the march signed in type by its 10 leaders, followed by a 10-point list of demands. On the final page is a map of the short final march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
166
Group of 4 items from the March on Washington.
New York and np, 1963
Various sizes and conditions.
“An Appeal to You . . . to Join us on Wed. Augu. 28th to March on Washington.” Printed handbill, 11 x 8½ inches, in blue on white paper, signed in type by Cleveland Robinson and Bayard Rustin; minimal wear. A call to join the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, framed as an appeal from James Farmer, Martin Luther King, John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young. It lays out the demands of the marchers and assures that “in your community, groups are mobilizing for the March.” New York: National Office, March on Washington, 28 August 1963.
“Mathew Ahmann . . . Appeal to You to March on Washington.” Smaller printed handbill, 8¼ x 5½ inches, in black on cream paper; horizontal folds, minimal wear. A smaller version of the preceding flier, targeted to New York attendees, with information on bus reservations. 4 more names are added to the appeal with Dr. King, John Lewis, et al, including white labor leader Walter Reuther and Rabbi Joachim Prinz. New York: National Office, March on Washington, 28 August 1963.
“March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom! August 28th.” Bumper sticker, 4 x 16 inches, in blue on white glossy paper; adhesive remnants on verso, vertical fold and minor wear.
“March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom” pinback button, 2¼ inches round; minor wear. New York: Allied Printing Trades Council, 28 August 1963.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
167
Marchers for Jobs and Freedom, Halt Justice Department Persecution of Albany, Georgia’s Integration Leaders.
Atlanta, GA: Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, [August 1963]
One page, 12½ x 8½ inches; petition lines left blank, moderate wear on top edge, horizontal fold.
This petition was issued to defend the “Albany Nine,” who faced long prison sentences in southern Georgia for daring to picket a segregationist store owner. The struggles of these Georgia activists are described in detail. The boldfaced title, “Marchers for Jobs and Freedom,” suggests that a march was planned in Georgia. Actually, this petition was handed out in conjunction with the 28 August 1963 March for Freedom in Washington. An article of that date in the Knoxville News-Sentinel describes its distribution aboard a trainload of marchers headed north from Florida: “As the train moved north, a white girl wearing glasses–one of a dozen white persons aboard–circulated a petition demanding that the federal indictment against the Albany Nine be dropped.” None traced in OCLC or at auction, though one is held among the Eliza Paschall Papers at Emory University.
Estimate
$400 – $600
168
Group of 4 press photographs of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing.
Birmingham, AL, 15-21 September 1963
Wire photographs, various sizes up to 8½ x 12 inches, with various stamps and stickers on verso, most with news clippings on verso; some cropped, minor wear.
Ku Klux Klan members used 19 sticks of dynamite to blow up this Black church in Birmingham, AL, killing 4 girls. None of the terrorists faced trial until 14 years later. 3 of these photographs show the wreckage in the immediate aftermath of the bombing, and a fourth shows the conclusion of a sympathy march at city hall.
Estimate
$600 – $900
169
Leaflet for the 1963 “March in Cincinnati” inspired by the March on Washington.
Cincinnati, OH, 27 October 1963
One sheet, 9 x 6¼ inches, on glossy white stock; 2 horizontal folds, minor wear.
The leaflet is illustrated with 3 stylized marchers and one voter, and lists support from the local NAACP, Board of Rabbis, AFL-CIO, Catholic Interracial Council, and CORE. None traced in OCLC or at auction.
With–an information packet prepared for the same event, headed “March in Cincinnati . . . Prepared for the delegation from the College of Mt. St. Joseph-on-the-Ohio.” 4 mimeograph sheets, 11 x 8½ inches, stapled; moderate toning and soiling to first sheet. Issued for a private Catholic college near Cincinnati, now Mount St. Joseph University, it explains the purpose of the march, the role of public demonstrations, commentary on the success of the Washington march, and numerous quotes from progressive Catholics on the need for inter-racial justice.
Estimate
$500 – $750
170
Group of 5 leaflets from civil rights protests in Oregon and Washington.
Vp, circa 1963-65
5 items, 11 x 8½ inches except as noted; folds, minor wear.
Leaflet protesting Portland, OR department store chains with segregated lunch counters in the South: “Help Fight Bigotry! Don’t Patronize Sears, Woolworth, Kress, W.T. Grant.” Issued by the Portland Committee on Racial Equality, circa 1963.
Smaller leaflet (8½ x 5½ inches) with similar content: “Don’t Support Segregation,” issued by the N.A.A.C.P. Portland Branch. Two copies, on white and red paper.
Leaflet protesting a speech by Alabama Governor George Wallace by the Eugene (OR) Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality: “Donate to Voter Registration in the South.” [13 January 1964].
Leaflet from Washington State University: “WSU is sending representatives to Selma. They will participate in the march to Montgomery and will send back first-hand information.” Signed in type by Glenn Howze of the Combined Committee for Selma. [Pullman, WA], March 1965.
Estimate
$500 – $750
WITH RELATED FLIER
171
Stand up for the Freedom Democrats. MFDP.
Np, circa 1964
Silk-screened poster, 23 x 35 inches; minimal wear.
A poster in support of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, an integrated effort to supplant the segregated all-white Democratic Party in Mississippi at the Democratic National Convention. They sent 64 delegates to the convention in Atlantic City, NJ, but were denied recognition–though President Johnson did offer them an insulting two at-large seats.
With–related tri-fold double-sided flier for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, “We the people of Mississippi who want to work for real change have joined together to form our own political party,” illustrated with a detail from a well-known Danny Lyon photograph. 8½ x 14 inches, circa May 1965.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
172
The Washington Assembly’s 7 Songs to Freedom.
Np, [April 1964]
4 pages, 9 x 6 inches, on one folding sheet; vertical fold, moderate toning.
Songs compiled and distributed for the Church Assembly on Civil Rights, held in Washington on 28 April 1964. It concludes with “We Shall Overcome.” “Spirituals expressing the universal qualities of love, hope, faith, courage and determination that right will prevail . . . compiled and transcribed by Merritt Hedgeman and S. Coleridge Huey.” 2 in OCLC and none traced at auction.
Estimate
$300 – $400
173
jeff donaldson, artist and author.
The Civil Rights Yearbook.
Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1964
Numerous illustrations. [63] pages. 4to, 11 x 8½ inches, illustrated wrappers on glossy stock; minor foxing and minimal wear.
Jeff Donaldson (1932-2004) is best known as a visual artist and as a founder of the AfriCOBRA group. Early in his career he also produced this satirical work, in which he lampoons every “type”–conservative and militant civil rights leaders, the Southern chief of police, Northern liberals, and more. In the true spirit of the equal-opportunity offender, the final illustration is a mocking self-portrait of the artist at his easel, with one eye reading “Freedom Now” and the other with a dollar sign.
Estimate
$400 – $600
174
1964 Georgia student newspaper featuring John Lewis, with his signature.
Atlanta, GA, 19 May 1964
4 pages, 11 x 8½ inches, on one folding sheet; minimal wear; signed in blue marker on the masthead.
This issue of “The Student Voice” features a cover story on SNCC desegregation actions titled “Nashville Group Sustains Protests,” illustrated with a photograph of SNCC’s young chairman John Lewis being carried off by the Nashville police. The article also notes that Lewis was “also injured by police in recent demonstrations here when he was arrested for his 32nd time.”
The newspaper was signed for the consignor by Congressman Lewis at a Martin Luther King commemoration in Kenosha, WI on 26 January 2013. A copy of the event program is included with the lot, as well as a color copy of another dated Lewis inscription done at the same event.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
175
SNCC fundraising circular letter featuring the classic portrait of John Lewis, with his signature.
Np, circa June 1965
2 pages, 11 x 8½ inches, on one sheet, with two facsimile signatures of letter author Nathan Schwerner; folds; signed in blue marker by Congressman John Lewis just below photograph.
This SNCC fundraising appeal was issued a year after the June 1964 Klan executions of 3 activists in Philadelphia, Mississippi. It was written by Nathan Schwerner, father of one of the executed youths, insisting that his son might still be alive if SNCC had the funding for better communications and transportation. The circular is illustrated with the Danny Lyon photograph of 22-year-old John Lewis and other protesters kneeling in prayer at a segregated swimming pool in Cairo, IL in July 1962, as also seen in the poster “Come Let Us Build a New World Together.”
The circular was signed for the consignor by Congressman Lewis at a Martin Luther King commemoration in Kenosha, WI on 26 January 2013. A copy of the event program is included with the lot, as well as a color copy of another dated Lewis inscription done at the same event.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
176
earl newman; artist.
SNCC: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Np, circa 1965
Silk screen poster in red and black, 35 x 22½ inches, depicting a man holding a child; minor wear including tack holes at corners, one-inch closed tear at top edge.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
177
Group of 7 oversized press photos of the Selma-Montgomery marches.
Selma and Montgomery, AL, 7 to 16 March 1965
Wire photographs, 11 x 14 inches, each captioned in negative, with period UPI and Field Enterprises inked stamps on verso, and later collection stickers, some with manuscript captions on verso; minimal wear.
Two of the photographs depict a dramatic scene from “Bloody Sunday,” the brutal first attempted march on 7 March, showing organizer Amelia Boynton (1911-2015) unconscious by the Pettus Bridge and being carried off by other marchers as a helmeted sheriff stands by. She is not identified in the captions.
3 photographs depict the 9 March second march in Selma. One shows a long line of marchers crossing over the Pettus Bridge; another shows a mixed-race group of nuns and clergymen “in the forefront.” The final 2 photographs depict demonstrators clashing with police in Montgomery on 16 March, the eve of the final successful march. With–2 other wire photographs in the same format, one a crowd view of the Detroit Walk to Freedom on 23 June 1963, and the other of rather soggy policemen attempting to arrest a mixed group of men who were integrating a swimming pool in St. Augustine, FL, 18 June 1964.
Estimate
$500 – $750
178
Pair of press photographs of the shooting of James Meredith on the March Against Fear.
[Near Hernando, MS, 7 June 1966]
Wire photographs, 7 x 9 inches; light crop marks in margins, Chronicle Magazine stamps and markings on verso including caption clippings from their 1 January 1967 year-in-review issue.
The activist James Meredith was hit with a shotgun blast on the second day of his March Against Fear from Memphis to Mississippi. In the first of these images of the shooting, the assailant Aubrey James Norvell can be seen in the roadside shrubbery to the far left. For the second image, the photographer Jack Thornell has apparently run directly toward where the assailant had been, spun around, and caught Meredith dragging himself toward cover. Thornell won the Pulitzer Prize for these photographs.
Meredith survived the attack. Martin Luther King and others completed the march on his behalf, and Meredith was able to join them in Jackson nineteen days later.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
179
The Battle & the Blues, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Freedom Rally.
[San Francisco, CA], 30 January [1966]
Flier, 14 x 8½ inches; tape remnants and light wear at corners, wrinkling.
An anniversary benefit celebration for SNCC at the Fillmore Auditorium, with an unusual lineup: Stokely Carmichael, Cesar Chavez of the National Farm Workers Association, and top-flight blues singers Big Mama Thornton, and Jimmy Witherspoon, as well as jazz scat singer Jon Hendricks.
Estimate
$500 – $750
180
Group of press photographs from the March Against Fear.
Vp, 9 to 23 June 1966
23 AP and UPI wire photos, most 8 x 10 inches, one a bit larger and one a bit smaller, with typed captions in negative, and inked subject header and “Examiner Reference Library” stamps on verso; 2 cropped with crop marks and related clippings attached, minimal wear to the remainder.
The March Against Fear began as a solitary march by James Meredith from Memphis, TN to Jackson, MS. Meredith was shot and wounded by a sniper on the second day of the march on 6 June. These photographs begin 3 days later as thousands of civil rights activists resumed the march in Meredith’s name. These photographs focus on the rank and file marchers rather than leaders such as Martin Luther King and Stokely Carmichael, or the celebrity guests who joined them in Jackson. Several images show the police tear gas attack on the marchers’ tent encampment in Canton, MS, and one shows demonstrators in Yazoo City with fists raised chanting “Black power” against the wishes of Dr. King.
Estimate
$600 – $900
181
Three Black Brothers Were Killed. What Are You Going To Do?
[New York], 16 February [1968]
Flier, 2 pages on one sheet, 11 x 8½ inches; horizontal fold, offsetting from printing.
This Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee flier summarizes the horrifying events of the recent Orangeburg massacre in South Carolina on one side, and on the other presents an action plan: a series of rallies throughout New York culminating in a large event in Harlem; calls to South Carolina officials demanding justice; and donations to the Orangeburg Support Fund. Point #6: “For those of you who don’t think we are doing shit with the action stated in this leaflet, you are right. This isn’t shit. I am sure some of us brothers are going to seek revenge for the death of our brothers in the many Orangeburgs in racist America.” None others traced.
Estimate
$400 – $600
182
Photograph of the memorial procession upon the 5th anniversary of the death of Medgar Evers.
[Jackson, MS, 16 June 1968]
Snapshot photograph, 5 x 7 inches; upper corners torn, other minor wear; inscribed on verso “Joe Ashker, Jackson, Miss.”
This memorial procession in Jackson received national coverage through the Associated Press. The Jackson Clarion-Ledger described the scene captured here: “A priest carried a large American flag. Close behind was the blue banner of the American Veterans Committee’s Jackson post, named for Medgar Evers.” Accompanied by a note from the photographer’s son.
Estimate
$300 – $400
183
Folder of membership and voter registration notes on the Selma branch of the NAACP.
Selma, AL, 1969-70
16 items in one folder; minor wear and soiling.
Selma, Alabama is best known for its 1965 protest marches. These records date from 4 years later, and are mostly copies of official reports retained by the secretary of the NAACP’s Selma-Dallas County Branch. Includes 9 summary membership reports from July to December 1969, each one 2 to 5 pages, listing individual branch members and their dues payments; 2-page manuscript list (apparently for voter registration) with 48 signatures, addresses, and birthdates; booklet of membership blanks; 4 blank dues reminder letters, August 1970; and mimeograph retained copy of letter reporting on a recent voter registration drive, 30 June 1970.
Estimate
$500 – $750
184
hugo gellert, artist.
Racism Chains Both.
New York: Communist Party USA / National Black Liberation Commission, circa 1970
Poster, 22½ x 17½ inches, in red and blue; minimal wear.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Items from the Library of John Wesley Cromwell
185
howard carroll.
Twelve Americans: Their Lives and Times.
New York, 1883
12 portrait plates including Frederick Douglass, most with titles on verso. xii, [2], 473, 6 pages including publisher’s ads. 12mo, publisher’s cloth, moderate wear, rebacked with most of original backstrip laid down; moderate wear to endpapers, otherwise minimal wear to contents; inscribed in Cromwell’s hand “A present from Frederick Douglass to J.W. Cromwell” on front free endpaper.
A collection of short biographies of Frederick Douglass and eleven white men whose reputations today range from moderately well-known (Peter Cooper, rival vice presidents Hamlin and Stephens, Charles Francis Adams) to completely forgotten. The Douglass portrait is sympathetic and admiring, and concludes “It is doubtful if any man, in any country, commencing so low, ever climbed so high as did Frederick Douglass.”
In 1881, John Wesley Cromwell founded the Bethel Literary and Historical Association to serve Washington’s small but growing Black intelligentsia. Frederick Douglass attended some of these meetings. Douglass was apparently proud enough of his profile in Twelve Americans to give it as a gift, and impressed enough with John Wesley Cromwell to make him a recipient. Afro-Americana 2091.
John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927) was born into slavery in Portsmouth, VA, and went on to a long and distinguished career as a journalist, editor, historian, and activist. This and the following 12 lots descended through his daughter Otelia Cromwell (1874-1972), a noted literary scholar; and granddaughter Adelaide M. Cromwell (1919-2019), an important sociologist.
Estimate
$500 – $750
186
The Confession, Trial and Execution of Nat Turner, the Negro Insurgent.
Washington: American Negro Monographs Co., April 1910
American Negro Monographs, Volume I, #1. 15 pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers, rebacked; minimal wear to contents.
Editor John Wesley Cromwell issued this new printing of Nat Turner’s confession as the first in his American Negro Monographs. 2 in OCLC, and none known at auction. This example comes from his personal files.
Provenance: family of author and activist John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927) through his daughter Otelia Cromwell (1874-1972), a noted literary scholar; granddaughter Adelaide M. Cromwell (1919-2019), an important sociologist.
Estimate
$500 – $750
187
william hilary coston.
A Freeman, and Yet a Slave.
Burlington, IA: Wohlwend Bros., 1888?
Frontispiece plate. 84, [1] pages. 16mo, publisher’s gilt cloth, minor wear; hinges split, short closed tear to frontispiece, otherwise minimal wear to contents, pencil editing marks in margins.
First edition. A bracing political tract by a Yale-educated African Methodist Episcopal minister, born in Providence, RI. White Christian hypocrisy, capitalism, and open immigration are dismantled in turn. This copy bears no ownership marks, but the pencil marginal notes are likely John Wesley Cromwell’s–possibly intended as suggested corrections for a later edition. Coston was a minister in Mount Pleasant, Iowa from 1888 to 1889, when this book was published. None others traced at auction. Work, page 88; not in Afro-Americana or Blockson.
Provenance: family of author and activist John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927) through his daughter Otelia Cromwell (1874-1972), a noted literary scholar; granddaughter Adelaide M. Cromwell (1919-2019), an important sociologist.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
188
john w. cromwell.
The Challenge of the Disfranchised. A Plea for the Enforcement of the 15th Amendment.
Washington: American Negro Academy, 1924
Occasional Papers #22 of the American Negro Academy. 10 pages. 8vo original printed wrappers, disbound and rebacked; contents toned and crudely rebacked with slight loss to pages 6 and 7.
An essay hoping to address the general disenfranchisement which set in after Reconstruction. 7 in OCLC; not in Blockson or Afro-Americana. The author’s personal copy.
Provenance: family of author and activist John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927) through his daughter Otelia Cromwell (1874-1972), a noted literary scholar; granddaughter Adelaide M. Cromwell (1919-2019), an important sociologist.
Estimate
$600 – $900
189
timothy thomas fortune.
Black and White: Land, Labor, and Politics in the South.
New York, 1884
310 pages. 12mo, publisher’s gilt cloth, moderate wear; a few leaves detached, rear hinge split, occasional pencil notes in margins; inscribed on flyleaf “Compliments of the author” with a clipped signature of unrelated author Alexander Crummell enigmatically laid down below.
Fortune (1856-1928) was a highly influential Black journalist and publisher of the New York Age. This book predicts that America’s coming struggles would be not between the races, but between labor and capital, concluding on page 242: “the rich, be they black or be they white, will be found on the same side; and the poor, be they black or be they white, will be found on the same side. Necessity knows no law and discriminates in favor of no man or race.” Afro-Americana 3755; Blockson 2291.
Provenance: family of author and activist John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927) through his daughter Otelia Cromwell (1874-1972), a noted literary scholar; granddaughter Adelaide M. Cromwell (1919-2019), an important sociologist.
Estimate
$500 – $750
GIFT FROM AN A.M.E. MINISTER, JUST WEEKS AFTER THE CIVIL WAR
190
john gihon.
Geary and Kansas.
Philadelphia, 1857
348 pages. 12mo, publisher's cloth, moderate wear; moderate toning and minor foxing; gift inscriptions on front endpapers, one of them to John Wesley Cromwell.
This volume bears a gift inscription by the Rev. Jeremiah R.V. Thomas (circa 1835-after 1880), a significant African Methodist Episcopalian minister in the years following the Civil War, in Portsmouth and later in Baltimore and New Orleans. The book was given to John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927), who had been freed from slavery as a young boy in 1851, graduated in 1864 from the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, and then in 1865 returned to the town where he had been enslaved, Portsmouth, VA, where he opened his own school. During this period, weeks after the close of the Civil War, Rev. Thomas inscribed the book “J. Wesley Cromwell, presented by Rev. J.R.V. Thomas, Portsmouth, Va., June 8, 1865.” The subject, the recent history of abolitionist ferment in Kansas, would have likely been of interest to the aspiring young political activist and historian. Sabin 27338.
Provenance: family of John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927) through his daughter Otelia Cromwell (1874-1972), a noted literary scholar; granddaughter Adelaide M. Cromwell (1919-2019), an important sociologist.
Estimate
$600 – $900
GIFT FROM ONE FORMERLY ENSLAVED SCHOLAR TO ANOTHER
191
casely hayford.
The Truth about the West African Land Question.
London: C.M. Phillips, 1913
[8], 203, [11] including publisher's ads. 8vo, publisher's gilt cloth, minimal wear; minimal wear to contents, a few pencil notes; gift inscription by John E. Bruce on front free endpaper. First edition.
This book is most notable for its gift inscription, from one highly distinguished man who had risen from slavery to another. John Edward Bruce (1856-1924) was a Pan-Africanist historian who helped Arthur Schomburg found what is now the Schomburg Library. He inscribed it “To my good friend John Wesley Cromwell, ‘Old Reliable,’ with best wishes, John E. Bruce ‘Grit’, Yonkers, N.Y., 11/8/13.” Above that inscription, Cromwell has written “Read it.”
In the rear of the book are press notices for another book by Hayford, Ethiopia Unbound. They include a half-page review credited to John Edward Bruce. Cromwell has bracketed the review in pencil and noted in the margin (with an almost audible huff) “Written by J.W.C.”
Provenance: family of John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927) through his daughter Otelia Cromwell (1874-1972), a noted literary scholar; granddaughter Adelaide M. Cromwell (1919-2019), an important sociologist.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
192
rufus l. perry.
The Cushite; or the Children of Ham (the Negro Race), as Seen by the Ancient Historians and Poets.
31 pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers, worn, rebacked, marked “Rare” on front wrapper; moderate wear and staining to contents.
First edition; expanded to book length in 1893. The Rev. Rufus L. Perry (1834-1895) of Brooklyn was born into slavery and became a noted scholar (fluent in Greek, Hebrew and Latin), Baptist minister, leader in the famed Weeksville neighborhood of Brooklyn, founder of an orphanage, and entrepreneur behind an attempted “Negro colony” in Jamesport, Long Island. This scholarly essay examines the Classical sources on early Black Africans and concludes that it would be “dishonoring our ancestors to be ashamed of either our color or our name.” Afro-Americana supplement 1690. 2 copies in OCLC; no other works by Perry traced at auction.
Provenance: family of freedman and activist John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927) through his daughter Otelia Cromwell (1874-1972), a noted literary scholar; granddaughter Adelaide M. Cromwell (1919-2019), an important sociologist.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
GIFT FROM ONE FORMERLY ENSLAVED SCHOLAR TO ANOTHER
193
john sarbah.
Fanti Customary Laws.
London: William Clowes and Sons, 1897
xxiii, [1], 295 pages. 8vo, publisher’s gilt cloth, moderate wear, chipping and repairs to backstrip; hinge split after page 64, minimal wear to contents; 3 inscriptions to internal leaves.
First edition. This book is most notable for its gift inscription, from one highly distinguished man who had risen from slavery to another. John Edward Bruce (1856-1924) was a Pan-Africanist historian who helped Arthur Schomburg found what is now the Schomburg Library. Bruce signed the first preface page and noted the book’s purchase from William Clowes & Sons in London on 13 August 1897. On page 1, he added “John W. Cromwell Esq. from his friend Jno. E. Bruce, Aug 25 1897.” Cromwell’s distinguished granddaughter later signed on the dedication page “Adelaide C. Hill.”
Provenance: family of John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927) through his daughter Otelia Cromwell (1874-1972), a noted literary scholar; granddaughter Adelaide M. Cromwell (1919-2019), an important sociologist.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
194
william a. sinclair.
The Aftermath of Slavery: A Study of the Condition and Environment of the American Negro.
Boston, 1905
xiii, 358, [12] pages including publisher’s ads. 8vo, publisher’s cloth, backstrip ends chipped, otherwise minor wear; minimal wear to contents, occasional marginal check marks in pencil, rear hinge split; uncut, with a few leaves unopened; inscribed on front pastedown “To J.W. Cromwell, compliments, Wm. A. Sinclair.”
First edition. Sinclair (1857-1926) was born into slavery, and became a physician, member of the Niagara Movement, and early member of the NAACP. This study covers the period of Reconstruction into the 20th century. Both Sinclair and the recipient Cromwell were important Black intellectuals who shared a background in slavery, making this an interesting association copy. Afro-Americana 9437; Work, 592.
Provenance: family of author and activist John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927) through his daughter Otelia Cromwell (1874-1972), a noted literary scholar; granddaughter Adelaide M. Cromwell (1919-2019), an important sociologist.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
195
t. mccants stewart.
Liberia: The Americo-African Republic.
New York, 1886
Text illustrations. 107, [1] pages. 12mo, publisher’s gilt cloth, backstrip toned with moderate wear at extremities; front hinge split, a few pencil marks in margins, lacking rear free endpaper, otherwise minimal wear to contents; signed “Adelaide Cromwell Hill” on front pastedown and “Adelaide M. Cromwell on flyleaf.
Thomas McCants Stewart (1853-1923) was born into a free Black family in South Carolina, became a lawyer and minister, and then taught at Liberia College from 1883 to 1886. He later returned to Liberia from 1911 to 1914 and served as an associate justice on the Supreme Court; when he died on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands he was buried in a Liberian flag. This work offers a frank but generally sympathetic picture of Liberia to prospective emigrants. Afro-Americana Supplement 2212; Blockson 1496; Work, page 107.
Provenance: part of the family library of author and activist John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927) and bearing two signatures of his granddaughter Adelaide M. Cromwell (1919-2019), an important sociologist.
Estimate
$400 – $600
WITH SCARCE FOLDING PLATE OF TUSKEGEE
196
booker t. washington, et al.
A New Negro for a New Century.
Chicago: American Publishing House, [1900]
Folding plate, frontispiece portrait, 59 full-page portraits paginated with text. 428 pages. 8vo, publisher’s gilt pictorial cloth with photographic portrait of Washington inlaid as issued, minor wear; signed by owner Adelaide Cromwell (1919-2019), the noted sociologist, on front free endpaper.
Essays on Black military successes, education (by Booker T. Washington), Reconstruction, and “The Colored Woman and Her Part in Race Regeneration” (by Fannie Barrier Williams). Includes portraits of Paul Dunbar, W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary Church Terrell, and dozens of less well-known men and women. The 10½ x 14-inch folding plate, “Buildings and Grounds of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute,” is mentioned in the plate list, but is lacking from the University of Connecticut and Emory copies as scanned on HathiTrust. The example here is detached and has some separation at the folds, but is complete. Afro-Americana supplement 2451; Blockson 3615.
Estimate
$300 – $400
WITH NUMEROUS ANNOTATIONS BY JOHN W. CROMWELL
197
george washington williams.
History of the Negro Race in America.
New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons / Knickerbocker Press, 1885
[2], xix, [1], 481, xiii, [1], 611 pages. 2 volumes in one. Thick 8vo, publisher’s gilt cloth, rebacked with part of original backstrip laid down, moderate wear and staining; moderate dampstaining and wear, several tape repairs, one leaf defective with slight loss; signed twice “J.W. Cromwell” and also “Adelaide Cromwell Hill” on title page, with numerous marginal notes in Cromwell’s hand.
Later “Popular edition” of the first general history of African Americans. It is most notable for its ownership signatures, most notably the author’s contemporary and fellow writer John Wesley Cromwell, who was born into slavery and went on to law school and an influential career as an activist. Some of the marginal notes are substantial, some correct factual errors, and at least one is personal: when Williams references the Institute for Colored Youth on page II:176, Cromwell writes “My alma mater.”
Provenance: family of John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927) through his daughter Otelia Cromwell (1874-1972), a noted literary scholar; and granddaughter Adelaide M. Cromwell (1919-2019), an important sociologist.
Estimate
$600 – $900
198
samuel m. fassett, photographer.
Scarce carte de visite portrait of Douglass, with his signature on verso.
Washington, DC, 1878
Albumen photograph, 3¾ x 2¼ inches, on original mount with photographer’s dated backmark; minimal wear, small tape mark on verso, signature slightly smudged.
The 2015 reference book Picturing Frederick Douglass includes 160 known photographic portraits of Douglass, who was the most photographed American of the 19th century. This handsome profile portrait, however, is not included. Another portrait by the same photographer, also dated 1878, appears to be from the same sitting. Only one other example of this portrait is known, an unsigned copy which brought $18,750 in Swann’s 28 March 2019 auction.
The photographer Samuel Montague Fassett (1825-1910) first photographed Douglass in 1864. Fassett’s wife Clara was an artist. In 1879 she painted “The Florida Case in Open Sessions Before the Electoral Commission, February 5, 1877,” with Frederick Douglass appearing in the lower right. She depicted him in a similar profile view, possibly using this pose as a reference.
Estimate
$15,000 – $25,000
199
Frederick douglass; editor.
Early issue of the North Star,
Rochester, NY, 1 September 1848
Volume I, no. 36. 4 pages, 25 x 18¼ inches, on one folding sheet, unbound; moderate dampstaining and a bit of water damage along the lower inner margin.
The masthead of this scarce and important abolitionist newspaper reads “Right is of no sex–Truth is of no color–God is the father of us all, and all we are brethren.” With the 1848 presidential election two months away, politics were a central concern. Abolitionists were disappointed with Whig nominee General Zachary Taylor and were gravitating toward the fringe Free Soil and Liberty parties. Half of the front page is devoted to an “Address to the Four Thousand Colored Voters of the State of New York” by Samuel Ringgold Ward (1817-1866), like Douglass a refugee from slavery on Maryland’s eastern shore. Another famed slave narrative author, Henry Bibb, contributes a call for the upcoming National Convention of Colored Freemen on page 3; a short defense of Bibb’s character is on page 2. An account of a speech by yet another, William Wells Brown, appears on page 3. An advertisement for Macon Bolling Allen of Boston, the nation’s first Black lawyer, appears on page 4.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
200
The North Star, volume II, issue 13.
Rochester, NY, 23 March 1849
4 pages, 25 x 18¼ inches, on one folding sheet; moderate dampstaining, hole on second leaf less than a inch round.
An issue of the abolitionist newspaper co-edited by Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany. The masthead reads “Right is of no sex–Truth is of no color–God is the father of us all, and all we are brethren.” This issue includes the text of a long anti-slavery letter by Senator Henry Clay, along with a detailed analysis by Douglass which takes up 3 columns. Also published are letters by Gerrit Smith and the well-known fugitive from slavery Henry Bibb, and an essay on “Domestic Economy” by Delany.
Estimate
$6,000 – $9,000
"I SHALL USE YOUR LETTER IN THE CAUSE OF HUMAN BROTHERHOOD"
201
Frederick douglass.
Letter concerning his rival Richard Greener.
Washington, DC, 23 December 1882
Autograph Letter Signed “Fred’k Douglass” to Martin I. Townsend. One page, 8 x 5 inches, plus integral blank with docketing on verso; folds, 2 small paper clip stains, mount remnants on docket page.
This letter relates to the longstanding dispute between Douglass and Richard T. Greener (1844-1922), the first Black graduate of Harvard and an opponent of close alliances with the Republican Party. Douglass was writing to Martin I. Townsend (1810-1903), a New York district attorney and former Republican congressman. In full:
“I am very much obliged. The letter to Prof. Greener contains an important lesson. I take my share of it. Nothing could be more to the point. The hit is palpable. May it never be mine or yours or his to need another such reminder. I shall use your letter in the cause of human brotherhood whenever and wherever I find opportunity. I shall not soon forget the pleasure of your company and conversation.”
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,500
202
augustus morand, photographer.
Carte de visite portrait of Douglass taken during the Civil War.
Brooklyn, NY, [15 May 1863]
Albumen photograph, 3½ x 2 inches, on original mount with photographer’s backmark; moderate foxing, minimal wear.
Cataloged in “Picturing Frederick Douglass” as portrait 24, tracing two other examples at the Douglass Historic Site and Virginia Historical Society. Douglass spoke at the Brooklyn Academy of Music quite near Morand’s studio on the day this portrait was taken (see page 22 of Pictuiring Frederick Douglass).
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
203
Frederick douglass.
Unusual deed signed as United States Marshal of the District of Columbia.
Washington, DC, 20 November 1878
Document Signed “Fred’k Douglass” and by several other clerks and witnesses, 4 pages on 2 detached sheets of lined paper, 12¼ x 8 inches; minor wear, short separations at folds, slight smudging to signature.
Douglass served as the United States Marshal for the District of Columbia from 1877 to 1881. His signature as Recorder of Deeds from 1881 onward is more often seen, but we are aware of only one other document signed in his official capacity as Marshal.
This document explains that Clayton B. Rogers had successfully sued a defendant on 18 October 1878, causing three parcels of land to be put up for public auction, where Rogers was then able to purchase the property for $380. Douglass thus deeds the property over to Rogers in his official capacity.
Estimate
$500 – $750
INCLUDES AN IMPORTANT SPEECH BY DOUGLASS
204
Frederick douglass.
Proceedings of the Civil Rights Mass-Meeting held at Lincoln Hall.
Washington, DC: C. P. Farrell, 1883
Errata slip tipped in. 53 pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers, foxing, moderate wear, failing cello tape repair along spine; minor wear and two inked notes to contents.
On 15 October 1883, the Supreme Court delivered a decision on what are known as “the Civil Rights Cases,” ruling that the 13th and 14th Amendments did not forbid racial discrimination by private individuals or companies, which nullified the Civil Rights Act of 1875. This devastating decision essentially provided legal sanction to Jim Crow practices for decades to come.
A week after the decision, before the opinions were even published, a protest meeting was held in Washington. This pamphlet records the minutes of the meeting, as well as keynote speeches by Frederick Douglass (pages 4-14) and white liberal orator Robert Ingersoll (15-53). The Douglass speech ranks as one of his most stirring. He argues that the Civil Rights Bill did not establish social equality between the races, it merely confirmed what was already clear from the Declaration of Independence, the Sermon on the Mount, and the Golden Rule. In conclusion, he notes that “no where, outside of the United States, is any man denied civil rights on account of his color.” Afro-Americana 3236; Blockson 3793.
Estimate
$600 – $900
205
theodore tilton.
Sonnets to the Memory of Frederick Douglass.
Paris: Brentano’s, 1895
12 pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers, minor soiling and wear, full vertical fold; uncut; warmly inscribed by author inside front wrapper.
A verse tribute to Douglass by his friend, the White editor and abolitionist Theodore Tilton, completed 8 days after the death of Douglass. It is inscribed “To the Hon. John Russell Young, with the compliments of his old friend, Theodore Tilton. Paris, Ave. Kleber, April 21st 1895.” Young was a diplomat and fellow journalist. None others traced at auction since 1922.
Estimate
$400 – $600
206
Souvenir leaflet issued for the dedication of the Frederick Douglass monument.
Rochester, NY, 9 June 1899
Double-sided card, 9¼ x 4 inches; minimal toning.
One side has a small portrait of Douglass and lists the members of the monument committee, and the other shows the monument over a quotation from an 1857 Douglass speech: “Men do not live by bread alone; so with nations, they are not saved by art, but by honesty; not by gilded splendors of wealth, but by the hidden treasure of manly virtue; not by the multitudinous gratifications of the flesh, but by the celestial guidance of the spirit.”
Estimate
$500 – $750
207
W.e.b. du bois.
The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches.
London, 1905
Frontispiece plate. viii, [2], 264, [1] pages. 8vo, publisher’s cloth, minor wear; minor foxing. First English edition. Partington 2333.
Estimate
$500 – $750
208
michael e. strieby and james powell.
The Quitman School: The Burning and the Rebuilding.
New York: American Missionary Association, December 1885
4 pages, 8½ x 5½ inches, on one folding sheet; minor wear, folds.
An account of a “school for the colored people” opened in an old hotel downtown Quitman, GA by northern missionaries. Even as the building was prepared for students, the staff endured a steady stream of abuse from the locals, including bullets fired through the principal’s window at night. The school managed to open in early October 1885. On 17 November, it was set on fire. Although located one block from the local fire department, no effort was made to save the building, only to protect the neighboring buildings from falling cinders. No lives were lost, but the staff and students fled town. In a final insult, the principal was charged with arson.
This article was later published in the January 1886 issue of The American Missionary, pages 2 to 6. OCLC lists only one other example of this leaflet printing, at Harvard.
Estimate
$600 – $900
209
Diploma for the Colored Normal College of South Carolina, signed by former congressman Thomas E. Miller.
Orangeburg, SC, 2 May [circa 1900-02]
Partly-printed Document Signed by Thomas Ezekiel Miller as college president, Miles B. McSweeney as governor, and others, made out to graduate Lillian Garrett, 16 x 20 inches, with embossed ribbon seal; folds, wrinkling, foxing and offsetting from ribbon.
Thomas Ezekiel Miller (1849-1938) was adopted by formerly enslaved parents in South Carolina, moved north after the war, graduated from Lincoln University in 1872, and then returned to South Carolina for a distinguished political career. He served in the United States Congress from 1890 to 1891, one of the final handful of Southern Black congressmen until 1972. He then served as president of the Colored Normal Industrial Agricultural and Mechanical College of South Carolina from the school’s 1896 founding through 1910. We trace no other examples of his signature at auction.
The diploma is also signed by Miller’s successor Robert Shaw Wilkinson, then a faculty member; and Nelson C. Nix–both have buildings named after them on the campus of what is now South Carolina State University. John Wesley Hoffman is another faculty signer. McSweeney’s signature as governor limits the date range to 1900-1902.
Estimate
$500 – $750
210
james t. saxon, et al.
The Negro View: Devoted to the Best Interest of Our Race.
Atlanta, GA, circa 1906?
4 photographic illustrations of the authors. 24 pages. 8vo, staple-bound, self-wrappers; worn, vertical fold, foxing, minor dampstaining, title page apparently supplied from another copy and taped to an unrelated 1909 pamphlet; inscribed “Important” on title page and addressed to E.D. Byrd of Gainesville, GA.
A collection of 6 articles compiled by students at Atlanta Baptist College, as a sequel to their similar 1905 pamphlet, “The Little Helper.” While numerous copies of “the Little Helper” survive, this present pamphlet appears to be completely unknown until now. The articles include “The Noble Work of our Women” and “The Power of Oratory” by James T. Saxon; “The Negro Enterprise” by Marion W. Miller; “The Open Door for the Negro in Christianizing Africa,” by A.P. Shaw of Gammon Theological Seminary; “Home Duties” by Minnie Freeman, teacher at Chattanooga High School; and “The Future Hope of the Negro” by John R. Saxton. Not in OCLC, and none traced at auction.
Taped in as a rear wrapper is another unrecorded pamphlet headed “Bean Creek Colored School,” concerning the July 1909 establishment of an industrial training program at that White County, GA school, signed in type with the initials of Principal I.J. Cantrell.
Estimate
$250 – $350
211
addison scurlock, photographer.
Photograph of the “Senior Commercial Class, Howard University, 1911.”
Washington, 1911
Photograph, 12¼ x 16¾ inches, on original plain mount; minor wear including a couple of light scratches and minor edge wear to mount; not examined out of period frame.
This group photograph shows 5 instructors and 10 graduates (each named with their home states). The original 15 portraits and campus view were presumably done by Addison N. Scurlock (1883-1964), Washington’s seminal Black photographer, who had just opened his first studio in 1911. They were then mounted as a collage with original artwork by Horace G. Anderson (1885-1971), a little-known Black artist who attended Howard and later exhibited in one of the Harmon Foundation shows in 1930. Finally, the collage was photographed and reproduced for the graduates by Scurlock, whose stylized signature “Scurlock, photo” appears in the negative.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
212
Illustrated diploma for the Langston-Douglass Academy.
Staunton, VA, circa 1910
Blank printed diploma, 14 x 17 inches; minor foxing, minimal wear.
The Langston-Douglass Academy was founded as an elementary school in 1906 and remained in operation through at least 1915. As of 1913, they had an enrollment of 76 students and employed 3 Black teachers. This diploma is illustrated with portraits of its two namesakes, John Mercer Langston (grand-uncle of Langston Hughes) and Frederick Douglass. One other example in OCLC, at the University of Virginia.
Estimate
$400 – $600
213
Autograph book presented to Marian Anderson by Alpha Kappa Alpha members including founder Ethel Hedgeman Lyle.
Philadelphia, 4 June 1938
48 manuscript pages. plus 4 clippings laid in on facing pages. Oblong 12mo, original boards, worn, decorative gilt front cover detached but present; minimal wear to contents.
On 4 June 1938, the famed opera singer Marian Anderson was honored by a dinner in her home town of Philadelphia by leaders of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation’s first Black sorority. This album was signed by 47 AKA members, many from the Philadelphia-based Omega Omega graduate chapter. Among them was Ethel Hedgeman Lyle, considered the founder and guiding light of Alpha Kappa Alpha, who urged Anderson to “go on, my dear, work and achieve, for the glory of our race.” Facing her inscription is her printed portrait. The longest inscription is by Ida L. Byrd (also illustrated with a photograph), who wrote “Your grace and simplicity are for your whole people an unmatched diadem. Phyllis Wheatley, Harriett Tubman and Sojourner Truth hoped and prophesied for their race, but you, dear Marian, carry on; you achieve for your people!” Six days after this event, Anderson was granted an honorary Doctor of Music degree at Howard University, and then embarked on a concert tour of Latin America. Her famous Lincoln Memorial concert which cemented her international fame was less than a year later.
Alpha Kappa Alpha has been in the news lately, as their member Kamala Harris recently assumed the vice presidency of the United States–the first member of any sorority to reach such a high elected office (among her many other distinctions).
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
214
Family papers of chemistry professor Willis E. Byrd of Lincoln University.
Vp, bulk circa 1900-50
Approximately 60 items (0.3 linear feet) in one box; generally minor wear.
Dr. Willis Edward Byrd (1922-2015) was raised in Athens, GA, received an A.B. in Chemistry from Talladega University, and then a PhD from the University of Iowa. From 1949 to 1988, he was at Lincoln University as a professor of chemistry and in other leadership positions. Included in this lot are 34 manuscripts and documents from his education and career, 1937-50, from his official Talladega transcript, recruitment letters and contract from Lincoln University, and more. While in military service in 1943, a letter from his father offered a pep talk: “Do not let anything change your course . . . a thorough preparation for life’s work. Do not stop shorter than the gold for which you once started.” 5 photographs show him as a young man, through a 1945 photograph in army uniform taken in Rome.
Family papers include 3 letters to his aunt Mary Elizabeth Jones (1892-1989) relating to her social work employment search in 1914-15; two long manuscript reports by his mother Annie L. Jones Byrd on community work in Athens, 1930-31; a pair of poll tax receipts from Brazoria, TX, 1895 and 1907; and a receipt for property taxes paid in Monroe County, 1864. 3 early family photographs circa 1900 show Dr. Byrd’s parents, aunts and uncles, and an unidentified group of women at Spelman College. A panoramic photograph shows the attendees at the 1948 Interdenominational Christian Conference for Negro Women at Clark College in Atlanta.
Printed ephemera includes programs for events at Morehouse, Spelman, and Talladega; reports of the Mulberry Rover Missionary Baptist Association, 1908 and 1911; and a copy of the Lincoln Clarion from 1949 announcing the hiring of Dr. Byrd.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
215
Papers of African American Studies scholar James A. Moss.
Vp, bulk 1945-90
Thousands of pages in 3 boxes (3 linear feet) plus 2 oversized items; generally minor wear.
James Allen Moss (1920-1990) had a long and distinguished academic career: a graduate of Fordham University, with a PhD from Columbia, he held administrative roles at the City University of New York and the State University of New York at Buffalo, concluding his career at Adelphi University as a professor of Social Science and director of their African American Studies program.
This lot features typescripts of many of Moss’s academic papers, such as his doctoral dissertation, “Utilization of Negro Teachers in the Colleges of New York State” (1957); “Open Neighborhoods: A Study of Community Response to Residential Integration in Schenectady” (1960), “A Study of the Potential Supply of Negro Teachers for the Colleges of New York State” (1961), “Racial Images Abroad and Making U.S. Policy” (1967), “Man Against Himself?” (1968), “In Defense of Black Studies” (1969), “Evaluation of African-American Dialogues” (1972); “Social Work Practice with Black Families” (1988); and “The Black Male: Hurling Oppression, Overcoming Anomie and Self-Hatred” (1988). His mother Marion Thompson Wright (1902-1962) was the first Black woman to receive a PhD in history, and was a editor with the Journal of Negro Education. Included here is Moss’s 1989 lecture on their unusual relationship, “A Personal Perspective on my Mother, Dr. Marion Thompson Wright.”
Also included are: the original poster artwork for a lecture he gave in Germany, “Education and Race Relations in the United States” (illustrated); several FBI background reviews from his applications for federal government work in the 1950s; 15 photographs, including one oversized portrait; a box containing thousands of slides (most apparently personal); personal correspondence; and other documents relating to his academic career.
Estimate
$600 – $900
216
Flier for the first annual Black Arts Festival at Penn State.
University Park, PA, 12 May [1969]
Flier, 11 x 8½ inches; minor wear including 2 short repaired closed tears in lower margin.
Today’s Black Caucus at Pennsylvania State University had its roots in the Frederick Douglass Association, which became the Black Student Union in 1969. The Black Arts Festival was their first project under the new name. Following a period of intense confrontation and demonstrations on campus, this event was intended to build bridges with appeal to both Black and White students. Entertainers included James Brown and Muddy Waters, and speaking appearances included Adam Clayton Powell, Ruby Dee, and the first Miss Black America Saundra Williams.
Estimate
$400 – $600
217
Know the Beauty of What You Are: The Sixth Annual Black Family Festival.
Davis, CA, 18 May [1976]
Poster, 17¼ x 11 inches, on red and green card stock; minor dampstaining on left edge, ink notations on verso, minimal wear.
An event sponsored by the Black Student Union at the University of California at Davis. The art is captioned “Ujima,” the Swahili word for collective work and responsibility, and the third principle of Kwanzaa.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Entertainment
Katherine Dunham (1909-2006)
Katherine Dunham was one of the most important American dancers of the 20th century. She led her own dance company, and ran her own school of dance in New York. A graduate of the University of Chicago, she was an accomplished anthropologist and scholar of dance in addition to her career on stage, and authored three books. Raised in Joliet, IL, she toured widely across several continents, residing at various points in New York, Hollywood, Haiti, and Tokyo as a true citizen of the world.
218
Diary, photographs, and correspondence of modern dance legend Katherine Dunham.
Vp, 1935-2002
Approximately 85 items in one box (0.4 linear feet); condition varies, moderate dampstaining to diary but generally strong.
This lot also contains 43 photographs of Dunham and of her dancers. They include a postcard-sized photo signed and inscribed to her mother (illustrated); another signed by Dunham in East St. Louis circa 1969-70; a group shot of her with Jean Cocteau and Josephine Baker at an opening in Paris, 1950; one with Maurice Chevalier; a still from her film Stormy Weather, 1943; with her troupe being greeted off the airplane in Korea, 1956; and a 13 x 9-inch Life Magazine print, 1958. Skipping forward several generations is a pair of photographs of hip hop artist Wanda Dee, one of them in her touring role as Josephine Baker, both signed and inscribed warmly to Dunham as an elder role model, circa 2002.
Among the manuscripts found here are logistical correspondence and travel documents from her company’s 1953 tour of Europe; 2 unsigned carbon letters from a New York associate suggesting the closure of her dance school, December 1953; and a 9 January 1954 carbon of her letter to manager Wilfred Wyler in New York: “Could you advise me as to whether an actual lien has been made on the bank accounts? It looks as though I will have to stay out of America for some time! Anyway if we all keep trying surely something optimistic will happen.” On the business end are draft contracts for her performers, 1948 and 1950; “Notes for Investor’s Contract between Katherine Dunham, producer and Mr. Nat Goldstone” in 1947; and a draft promotional agreement with her manager Mr. Hurok, 1943. 6 cancelled checks are preserved with endorsement signatures by Dunham’s “Tropical Revue” dancers James Alexander, Gloria Mitchell, Wilbert Bradley, Dolores Harper, and most notably two by Eartha Kitt, 1945-46; a clipped signature of Langston Hughes dated 8 April 1938 is part of this small autograph collection. Also included is a laminated manuscript plat map from her Haiti property dated 1972.
Rounding out the collection are a group of 6 programs from the 1940s and 1950s, including her important “Tropical Revue”, “Bal Negre," and “Caribbean Rhapsody" tours. An undated broadside advertises an early show at the Palacios de Bellas Artes in Mexico. The earliest item is a 1935 steamship passenger list listing Miss K. Dunham as a first-class passenger.
Manuscript diaries from cultural figures of Dunham's significance are not often seen on the market. This one is not only intellectually vigorous and deeply personal, it is also embellished by the context of photographs, letters, and other documents. A more detailed inventory is available upon request.
At the heart of this lot is her 42-page personal diary, mostly kept in 1958 while in Tokyo writing her memoir. It is a mix of traditional diary entries with bits of memoir and literary reflection. Typed passages from earlier volumes and other memoranda are frequently taped, stapled, or laid in. The entries range from lyrical landscape descriptions, to anthropological observations on Japanese culture, to bracingly frank comments on her personal life. Two recurring characters are her Japanese maid and the maid’s boyfriend, a rockabilly enthusiast who absconded with a small sum of money. Dunham attended a Japanese rockabilly concert and reflected on its layers of cultural appropriation: “Rockabilly show at Nichegeki with teenagers like reeking wet sardines throwing streamers and walking on stage embracing match-stick-legged performers in heavy ankle-high white rubber-soled moccasins . . . . Imitating Presley who imitates every blues shouter there ever was. I think of Joe Turner and Kokomo and Winona of Central Avenue when the big-busted oily-haired sisters walked onto the floor in ecstasy and put their dollar bills earned in Hollywood cleaning up after all-night brawls at Turner’s and Winona’s feet, real ecstasy rocking their bodies & shining their eyes. This is so puerile” (2 June 1958). In a similar vein, she wrote “When all else has come & gone the Blues will remain deeply, securely embedded in the substratum of American culture. Constant reminder of Black races. Triumph” (5 February). The blues remained on her mind in Tokyo: “The workmen sound like Josh White singing a work song. It will help them through the night” (11 February). Among the bits of memoir interweaved into the text, she recalls serving as a flower girl at countless funerals in Joliet; discusses writing a disturbing passage on her father (“I left off at eleven last night unravelling Albert Dunham’s incestuous desire for his daughter”); and proclaims “The aggregate of Israelites evacuating the land of the pharoas could have felt no greater relief or keener joy than I did when I at last left Joliet for good.” Her complex marriage to John Pratt is discussed at length in one passage written on 2 November while in Haiti.
In moments of intellectual detachment came more abstract observations: “Only upon the historian, the biographer falls the task of accuracy. The rest of us write things as we see them, or as we remember them to be. To make them believable, to live. Herein lies our artistry” (21 April). Typed passages reflect on her philosophy of dance: “For a dancer the association must be voluntary, the spirit free, and the flesh willing; the aims multiple and common. . . . Perhaps because there is no actual necessity for tools, material, artifacts, the dance was perhaps the earliest artistic expression—and its psychokinesthetic usage gave it real urgency beyond other creative arts. . . . My mission is not to present beauty but to present truth. If the two go hand in hand, how fortunate I am.”
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
219
Katherine dunham.
Large group of letters by the modern dance star to a close friend.
Vp, 1946-62 and undated
37 letters, most of the Autograph Letters Signed simply as "Calf", to assistant and friend Dorothy "Dorf" Gray; plus 5 signed cards, and 7 letters from Dunham's other staff members to Gray; condition generally strong. Most with original envelopes (some stamps clipped).
Katherine Dunham wrote these letters starting in the late 1940s, mostly while she was touring internationally. The recipient was her friend Dorothy Gray (1922-1976) of New York and later North Hollywood, CA, who helped manage her stateside affairs.
Nine of the letters were written in mid-1948, while Dunham was performing in England. On 31 May 1948, shortly after arriving in London, she writes: “The show so far is called Caribbean Rhapsody, the sort of title I loathe. Darling, I’ve just complained. But I’m so very blue and sad & lonely.” Four days later, the mood has changed: “After two days and two nights without any sleep, the entire show came through as a smash. Of course there’s nothing like opening night, even tho I was on empirin, benzedrine and scotch and hardly knew what was happening. The audience went wild and now you can’t get near the box office.” She encloses a clipping of a glowing review. Several letters allude to difficulties with her husband and set designer John Pratt. The problems of running her famous New York dance school from overseas are a running theme, as she wrote on 3 August 1948: “I have absolutely no idea what goes on at the school. . . It’s very hard to be so in the dark.” She also offers an inside scoop on the smash hit London production, writing on 20 August 1948: “I have your wire about Reginald. Please tell him that I am trying to work out a deal here with the union to permit him to play in the pit, which is against regulation, but as our music is very special and our present pianist is having a nervous breakdown and leaving soon, it might be arranged.”
The later letters are written from all over the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Haiti, San Francisco, and Japan. Australia receives poor reviews on 3 July 1956: “We are playing in a theatre which has to date, for at least forty years, had nothing but the cheapest kind of vaudeville, a compere telling dirty jokes, some acrobats, some tumblers, few semi-nudes and the dancing girls. . . . I should imagine that a year altogether would be possible here, but I turn pale at the thought.” Those looking for celebrity references will find a few. Dunham was rumored to be in an affair with famed psychologist Erich Fromm. She wrote on 18 August 1948: “Enjoying the books greatly. Could you send Dr. Fromm’s Escape from Freedom?” 30 June 1958 found her featured in Life Magazine: “Life worked me to death for two days with photographs & story. They’re doing the 14 outstanding negroes in a big spread. Hard to believe they thought of me along with Ralph Bunche, Gen. Davis, etc. Made me very nervous.” Despite her fame and critical success, keeping a large dance company on the road kept her finances in a precarious state. She wrote on 5 October 1961: “I cabled both [former student Eartha] Kitt and Julie in desperation last week. Negative from Kitt’s manager, no answer at all from the Belafontes.” Dunham’s work as an author and anthropologist is also noted, though in less detail than the nuts and bolts of her dance tours.
These letters put Dunham’s personality on vivid display: razor-sharp intelligence, deep and genuine concern for her friends, commitment to her art, and a flair for the dramatic. Her letters are almost uniformly entertaining. We know of no other Dunham archives which have appeared at auction, and yet here are two unrelated lots from different consignors in the same sale (see also lot 218).
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
220
Group of photographs of the short-lived but influential New York Negro Ballet Company.
Np, circa 1957
38 photographs, various sizes up to 8¾ x 6 inches, 2 signed in negative by photographer “Bruno of Hollywood” [Bruno Bernard]; most blank on verso, 2 with inked stamps of New York photographer Martin Dall, 3 with short pencil captions, and one with inked stamp of a British newspaper and an inscription by star dancer Delores Browne.
The New York Negro Ballet Company was founded late in 1956. In August 1957, they embarked on a tour of Great Britain, but their top financial backer passed away before they could continue to continental Europe; they continued to perform stateside through 1959 as Ballet Americana. Most of these photographs are professional shots of the dancers on stage; two show them posed on a steamship en route to Europe.
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
221
(entertainment–dance.) michael holman.
Breaking and the New York City Breakers.
New York, 1984
Heavily illustrated. 176 pages. 4to, 11 x 8 inches, original color illustrated wrappers, minimal wear.
Despite the cover, this is not a comic book. The contents are an unusual mix: a personal memoir of the New York breakdancing scene by one of its key members; a serious history of the African and American roots of break-dancing; a photographic manual breaking down the components of key moves; a fashion guide titled “The B-Boy Look”; an illustrated “who’s who” of the scene; a vocabulary list headed “The B-Boy Glossary”–and almost incidentally a promotional program to the eight-dancer crew who are profiled on the rear cover. This book has become a cult favorite over the years.
Estimate
$400 – $600
222
Brochure for Richard Maurice’s 1920 film Nobody’s Children.
Detroit, MI: Maurice Film Corporation, circa 1920
4 illustrated pages on one 7 x 7-inch folding sheet; folds, minimal wear.
Richard Danal Maurice (1893-1955) was an early Black filmmaker, born in Cuba and raised in Detroit. He founded the Maurice Film Corporation in 1920. His debut feature, Nobody’s Children, was released later that year and was screened across the country. No prints are known to survive. This brochure, however, includes 4 illustrations from the film, as well as a plot summary. We trace no other material from this lost film at auction.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
223
The Green Eyed Monster.
New York: Norman Film Manufacturing Company, 1921
Color poster, 78 x 80½ inches, on 6 conjoined sheets; minor wear and some light retouching, laid down on linen.
Poster for the silent film starring Louise Dunbar and Jack Austin, in which two rival railroad workers compete for the love of the same girl.
Estimate
$400 – $600
224
(entertainment–film.) milton glaser; designer.
Poster for the film “No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger.”
Washington: National Student Association, [1968]
Double-sided poster, 35½ x 23¾ inches; light wear at folds, ink mark at upper left.
This poster was created to promote David Loeb Weiss’s award-winning documentary, which addressed the impact of the Vietnam War on inner-city Blacks. The title quotation, often attributed to Muhammad Ali, can be seen in the film on the placards carried by marchers in the 1967 Harlem Fall Mobilization March. On verso are quotes and stills from the film, reviews, and booking information.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
225
(entertainment–film.) walter j. leonard.
A Tribute to Miss Cicely Tyson.
Cambridge, MA, 17 April 1974
Letterpress broadside, 13 x 14¼ inches, printed in red and black on handmade F.J. Head & Co. laid paper; very faint toning; uncut.
Printed for “Cicely Tyson Day,” when the actress was honored at the Harvard Faculty Club, particularly for her role as the formerly enslaved title character in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.” Tyson was only 49 when she played the 110-year-old Pittman. She was still acting and had just published her memoir when she passed earlier this year at the age of 96.
This tribute was penned by Walter Leonard (1929-2015), who had launched Harvard’s affirmative action program and later served as president at Fisk: “As Jane Pittman, she moved the art of acting to new heights. . . . She has given much to us. In an age of defeat and retreat, neglect and oppression; she is a symbol of strength, an embodiment of beauty and evidence of sterling achievement.” None others traced in OCLC, at auction, or elsewhere.
Estimate
$300 – $400
226
Broadside for Ira Aldridge’s historic first performance at London’s Theatre Royal.
Letterpress broadside, 13½ x 8¼ inches; minor foxing, moderate edge wear not affecting text.
Ira Frederick Aldridge (1807-1867) was an African-American actor who was born in New York but emigrated in 1824 in search of greater opportunities. He slowly worked his way up through the regional theaters of Great Britain and Ireland, often billing himself as a native of Africa. He was brought in to play Othello at Covent Garden’s Theatre Royal for his first opportunity at one of London’s leading theaters. His engagement as Othello lasted for only two performances, but he went on to a long career as one of England’s leading actors. He is the only actor of African descent to be honored with a plaque at the Shakespeare Memorial Theater.
This playbill advertises Aldridge’s groundbreaking first Covent Garden appearance as Othello. It promises a performance two days hence of “Shakespeare’s tragedy of Othello, the part of Othello by Mr. Aldridge, known by the appellation of the African Roscius, who has been received with great applause at the Theatres Royal, Dublin, Edinburgh, Bath, and most of the principal provincial theatres. (His first appearance on this stage.)” See Hovde, “Ira Aldridge Takes the Stage,” on the Folger Shakespeare Library blog, which is illustrated with a 10 April playbill. A pair of double-sized broadsides from Aldridge’s Covent Garden performances appeared in Swann’s 28 March 2019 auction; we are aware of none others at auction.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
227
Program for the Hyers Sisters and Sam Lucas in Out of Bondage.
Np, [1877?]
Letterpress broadside, 8¾x 3¾ inches; minor wear, 3 horizontal folds.
The Hyers family were groundbreaking figures who brought Black musical theater to the general public. Singing and acting sisters Anna Madah Hyers and Emma Louise Hyers were managed by their father Samuel B. Hyers. “Out of Bondage” was their best-known production, a story of slavery and emancipation with a Black cast–here including the important actor Sam Lucas, in his first major role outside of the minstrel shows where he began his career. The performance advertised here offers an act-by-act synopsis of the plot for Out of Bondage and a full cast list. The play debuted in 1875 or 1876, but we find this cast (particularly Celestine Brown on piano) mentioned in newspapers only from May to November 1877.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
228
Broadside for the popular drama of race relations in America, The Octoroon.
Hartford, CT: Calhoun Printing, 12 May [1877]
Letterpress broadside, 20¼ x 6¾ inches; horizontal fold, minimal wear.
“The Octoroon” by Dion Boucicault was a drama featuring a mixed-race Louisiana romance, with acts titled “Terrebonne Plantation,” “Slave Sale,” and “Lynch Law.” It was quite popular across America from its 1859 debut, surpassed in its genre only by Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This broadside advertises an 1877 performance in Bangor, Maine. It describes “The Octoroon” as “the greatest of all American plays.”
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
229
Broadside playbill for a performance of Uncle Tom’s Cabin featuring two original theatrical stars.
Newark, 29 October [1880] (printed in New York by Richardson & Foos)
Letterpress broadside, 29¼ x 9½ inches; complete separation at horizontal fold with slight loss and light tape stains, very tightly trimmed without loss of text, 2 1-inch tears and other minor wear, minor foxing.
This performance featured Mrs. G.C. Howard in her original role as Topsy, and Mr. Howard as St. Clair. The Howards created these roles in 1852 and continued to play them for more than 30 years. Uncle Tom was played by “Cool White”, the white minstrel performer John Hodges, who performed with the Howard company from 1879 and 1882. Among the supporting cast were “genuine Southern Colored Folk–Men, Women and Children”–most of whom were slaves in Georgia, Alabama and Virginia prior to the war,” as well as the “Virginia Colored Slave Troupe of Jubilee Singers.” The performance took place at the New Park Theatre in Newark, presumably Delaware rather than New Jersey–the troupe performed in nearby Wilmington the night before.
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
230
eulalie spence.
Fool’s Errand: Play in One Act.
New York: Samuel French, 1927
26, [6] pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers, moderate wear; dampstaining to contents.
First edition of an early prize-winning play by an important Harlem Renaissance female writer. She was born on Nevis in the West Indies and raised in Harlem and Brooklyn. This was her third play, produced by W.E.B. Du Bois’s Krigwa Players Little Negro Theatre, with sets by Aaron Douglas. It won the Samuel French Prize for “Best Unpublished Play,” but a dispute with Du Bois over the $200 prize money (and Spence’s lack of an overt political agenda) led to the dissolution of the Krigwa Players. None traced at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
231
paul robeson.
Signed program for his performance at the Hampton Institute.
4 pages, 9 x 6 inches, printed in red and black on one folding sheet; minor wear, light soiling on final page, 2 horizontal folds; inscribed on first page “To Eugene Williams, All best wishes & best of good fortune. Paul Robeson.”
For this performance at an historically Black university, Robeson delivered a diverse program including Russian folk songs, “Negro melodies,” a “Chassidic chant,” and the patriotic cantata “Ballad for Americans.” His selections alternated with pieces performed on the theremin (an eerie-sounding electronic instrument) by its first and only notable virtuoso, Clara Rockmore.
The local Newport News Daily Press (4 October 1941) described this as Robeson’s first-ever performance in the South, a bold and surprising claim, as Robeson had been performing internationally for decades by that point.
Estimate
$500 – $750
232
Playbill for an early performance of Othello signed by its star, Paul Robeson.
[New York], 21 November 1943
32 pages. 4to, original illustrated wrappers, minor wear; minimal wear to contents; signed “Best wishes, Paul Robeson” on front wrapper.
Robeson’s groundbreaking portrayal of Othello opened at Broadway’s Sam S. Shubert Theatre in October 1943, and continued for 280 performances.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
233
Memorabilia signed by Pearl Bailey for Cab Calloway, relating to their starring roles in Hello Dolly.
Vp, circa 1967-71
5 items; condition generally strong except as noted.
The hit Broadway musical Hello Dolly launched in 1964 with Carol Channing as the star. It was rebooted in November 1967 with an all-Black cast starring Pearl Bailey as Dolly and Cab Calloway as Horace. Offered here are 5 related items signed for Calloway:
8 x 10 photograph of Bailey and Calloway dancing at a private party, signed in Bailey’s hand (and using their characters’ names) “Dear Horace, we’ll be at it 50 years from now. Bless vaudeville. Love, Dolly”; 2 bits of tape in upper margin.
Illustrated program for the production, signed “Pearl” on her double-page spread, page 3.
St. James Theatre Playbill for August 1969, signed “Pearl” over the cast list on page 11.
8 x 10 photograph of Bailey signed “All my love, Pearl.”
Letter Signed “Pearl” to “Dearest ‘Horace’”, thanking Calloway for his television appearance on the Pearl Bailey Show: “It was a ball all week. All love and appreciation to a beautiful human being. Love to Nuffie, Cabella, and my Chris.” Streak of rust visible in letter. Hollywood, CA, 8 January 1971.
Estimate
$400 – $600
234
Program for an Artists in Prison performance of Lonne Elder’s “Ceremonies in Dark Old Men.”
Terminal Island, Los Angeles, CA, 6 December 1977
6 pages, 8½ x 7 inches, on 2 sheets of red paper; moderate wear at corners.
This performance was staged by the nonprofit Artists in Prison, featuring federal inmates from the Terminal Island Prison Drama Workshop. The play was Lonne Elder’s “Ceremonies in Dark Old Men,” which came in second for the 1969 Pulitzer Prize. The co-director was the playwright’s wife Judy Elder, a veteran actress of the Los Angeles stage and screen, who had met the playwright while performing in the original touring company of “Ceremonies in Dark Old Men.” Performances were held for four days at the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island, followed by a performance at the University of Southern California. The program features original artwork, an introductory essay by Judy Elder, a cast list, and an insert featuring quotes from 10 of the cast and crew, some alluding to their incarceration.
Estimate
$300 – $400
235
(exploration.)
Pair of press photographs of Arctic explorer Matthew Henson.
New York: Underwood & Underwood, circa December 1926
Each 8½ x 6½ inches with a 5½ x 7-inch folding caption slip mounted to verso; minor wear.
Matthew Henson (1866-1955) was Robert Peary’s second in command on several polar expeditions, and most notably was one of the party of six which claimed the North Pole in April 1909. He is here shown in later life, a middle-aged man in a suit filing papers at the New York Customs House, with scenes of Inuits, icebergs, and dogsleds still dancing through his mind. The caption explains that a local Congressman was pushing through a bill to honor Henson with a medal in “belated recognition of his heroism” as “the only member of his race to have ever reached the North Pole.”
Estimate
$500 – $750
236
(florida.)
The Negroes of Putnam . . . are Invited to Enjoy with us the Big Celebration.
Palatka, FL: Wattles Printing Shop, 11 November 1927
Letterpress broadside, 17 x 10¼ inches; folds, minimal wear.
We hope somebody can explain this one for us. Here in the deep south, at the height of the Klan’s second heyday, a town holds a large Veteran’s Day celebration to dedicate a new bridge–and they make a point to invite the “Negroes of Putnam and Adjoining Counties” to the celebration. Furthermore, the keynote speaker was the president of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College, an historically Black college. In closing, the local African Americans are assured this is no joke: “The citizens of Palatka mean for you to come and bring your wives and children. Come and enjoy one long free day of festivity; see our bridge, schools, and churches.”
The celebration was held in Palatka, a small inland city west of Jacksonville, FL. Putnam County had some glimmers of progressive racial attitudes. Their former sheriff, Peter Hagan, had resisted lynchings and Klan activity at great personal risk, but he had been voted out of office in 1924. That ushered in two years of Klan violence–dozens of horrific incidents against Blacks and Catholics. The better elements eventually prevailed, with the threat of a state investigation cooling down the incidents in 1926, and Hagan was re-elected in 1928. See “Ku Klux Klan met its match in Putnam County in the 1920s,” Tampa Bay Times, 24 October 2012.
Klan or no, the town apparently went ahead with its integrated celebration in 1927. The Memorial Bridge remained in service until replaced by an identically named bridge in 1976; a World War One memorial which was also dedicated at this event still stands today.
Estimate
$400 – $600
237
(food and drink.) robert roberts.
House Servant’s Directory
Boston: Munroe and Francis, 1827
180 pages. 12mo, . First edition, 8vo, contemporary tree calf, minor wear, sympathetically rebacked; original endpapers, minor marginal worming with modern repairs to pages 23-38 and 151-180, minor dampstaining.
First edition. Often credited as the first cookbook by an African American, the work goes well beyond cookery. It is a comprehensive guide to the management of an elite household–one of the few careers open to Black men during this period. Sections are devoted to table service, “answering the bells,” coal heat, and recipes for various cleaning agents. Pages 120-153 are devoted to cookery, marketing, and table service. The author Robert Roberts (circa 1780-1860) was born in South Carolina, probably into slavery, and came north to New England by 1805. He served as head butler to wealthy Bostonians, most notably former governor Christopher Gore, while becoming increasingly active in local politics and the abolition movement. After Gore’s death in 1827, Roberts ended his career as a butler and worked as a stevedore until his own death in 1860. “Among the very first books written by an African American and issued by a commercial house, the book was certainly written with Gore’s permission and perhaps with his financial support”–introduction to the 2016 edition of the House Servant’s Directory, page xiii. Afro-Americana 8912; Cagle, Food & Drink 647; Lowenstein, American Cookery 107.
Estimate
$6,000 – $9,000
238
(fraternal.)
19th Anniversary and Ball of the Unity Club.
Boston: A.W. Lavalle, 10 December 1914
[44] pages. 8vo, original pictorial wrappers, moderate wear and detached from text block; minor wear to contents.
The Unity Club was founded in Boston as a social and mutual benefit association for young Black men. This program serves as their yearbook, including a history, list of members, frontispiece portrait of their president, words to their theme song composed by Eugene Alexander Burkes, exterior and interior views of their clubhouse at 228 West Canton Street, and copious illustrated advertisements for local businesses. Although it was apparently a large and successful organization, we find none of its materials at auction or in OCLC, and it seems to be largely forgotten today.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
239
Marcus garvey.
Speech . . . before Delegates and Deputies to the 4th Annual International Convention of Negro Peoples.
New York, 1 August 1924
15 leaves plus final blank. 8vo, loose sheets stapled on top edge; light vertical fold, minimal wear.
Text of a speech at Carnegie Hall. “We must have Africa. We will give up the vain desire of having a seat in the White House . . . for the chance and opportunity of filling these positions in a country of our own.” We trace no other examples of this printing, although the text of the speech did appear in his 1926 “Philosophy and Opinions.”
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
240
(haiti.) toussaint louverture.
Signed letter discussing friction with the remaining French officials in Haiti.
Np, 18 September 1798
Letter Signed to “Citoyen Vincent” on printed “Toussaint Louverture” letterhead. 5 pages on 3 sheets plus final blank, bound with paper backing; minimal wear and foxing.
In this original signed letter to Haiti’s French director of fortifications, the revolutionary leader of Haiti wrangles with with last vestiges of shared control with France. He complains of the French-appointed governor Gabriel, comte d’Hédouville, accusing him of fomenting dissent: “La plus parfaite concorde régnait á son arrivée et déjà il se manifeste des germes de divisions, il porte un esprit soupçonneux contre les hommes qui ont le mieu servis la république, il ne reve que complots, rassemblements, que soulevement” (in English, “The most perfect harmony reigned on his arrival and already the seeds of divisions are showing. He carries a suspicious spirit against the men who have best served the republic. He only dreams of plots, gatherings, and uprising”). In closing, he assures his correspondent that the nation’s formerly enslaved leadership embraced the rule of law: “les noirs ont reçus leurs anciens maitres à bras ouverts. . . . Ils seront toujour bons, humains et amis des lois” (“the Blacks received their former masters with open arms, and will always be good, humane and friends of the law”). Provenance: Christie’s London sale, 29 June 1995, lot 413.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
241
(history.)
Negro History Week: A National Celebration.
Washington, DC: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, [December 1931]
16 pages. 8vo, self-wrappers; moderate wear, vertical fold, minor foxing.
A pamphlet announcing the national annual celebration of Negro History Week beginning on 7 February 1932. It includes a lengthy bibliography of suggested readings, and an extended essay on the failure of the educational system to teach this history. On page 12, the 1932 bicentennial of George Washington’s birth is discussed. The release of this pamphlet, and its discussion of the Washington bicentennial, are discussed in the New York Age of 12 December 1931. Versions of this pamphlet were issued annually from the first celebration in 1926, with variations in length and starting dates slightly altered to reflect a Sunday launch. This one advertises “the second week in February beginning the 7th,” which coincides with 1932. At 16 pages, it is much longer than the 1926 and 1927 editions.
Estimate
$500 – $750
242
(history.) carter g. woodson.
Important Events and Dates in Negro History.
Washington, DC: Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1936
Poster, 24¾ x 18½ inches, with elaborate pictorial border; minimal foxing, minor wear including 2½-inch crease in lower left corner; unfolded.
A calendar of the important events and dates in Black history, arranged from January to December. This chart was designed to accompany Woodson’s “Handbook for the Study of the Negro.” The artwork was done by Loïs Mailou Jones, who often illustrated works by Woodson’s Associated Publishers. A separate issue, a bit smaller than the 27 x 19-inch version that was issued folded with the book.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
243
(history.) ross d. brown.
Afro-American World Almanac: Feats, Facts, Fears and Faults of a Great Race.
[Chicago], 1943 [1945]
112 pages. 8vo, red printed wrappers, minor wear; minimal wear to contents.
The author was an inventor, industrialist, socialist, and minister. Among its dozens of sections are a list of great dates in Black history; a list of “Negro Inventors and their Patents” (with the author listed third); “Some Fine White Friends”; “Things They Don’t Want Us To Know”; a diatribe against “Foolish Funerals”; a summary of inter-racial marriage laws; and much more. This appears to be a second edition. The more common first edition, also copyrighted 1943, bears a different subtitle: “Afro-American World Almanac: What Do You Know About Your Race?” This edition includes a few entries updated through 1944 and one from January 1945 (see page 7).
Estimate
$300 – $400
244
(history.) harriett salter rice.
Across, Down & Black.
Denver, CO: published by the author, 1970
Illustrated. [3], 22, [1] leaves, with errata slip laid down on second leaf. Top-bound 4to, 11 x 8½ inches, original spiral binding with glossy cardstock cover; minimal wear.
An anthology of 12 crossword puzzles dedicated to Black history and culture, including introductory notes and solutions. The author lived from 1920 to 1973, and established a scholarship fund at her alma mater, Talladega College. 2 copies traced in OCLC, and none at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
"SEPARATE FROM THE PEOPLE GOD WILL DESTROY, AND FLEE FOR REFUGE IN ALLAH"
245
(islam.) elijah muhammad.
Letter dismissing a proposed academic study of the Nation of Islam.
Phoenix, AZ, 23 October 1963
Letter Signed to sociology professor Alphonso Pinkney of Hunter College. One page, 11 x 8½ inches; mailing folds, minimal wear. With a related secretarial letter and postmarked envelopes for each.
This letter was written in response to a proposed study of the Nation of Islam by young Black sociologist Alphonso Pinkney (1928-2006), just recently out of graduate school and not yet the author of such works as “The Myth of Black Progress.” In short, Muhammad did not wish for his people to be studied.
“Dear Professor Pinkney: I think it best to forget about the study you would like to make among us until such time you are able to study it more in the way of self-interest. I am not so willing to lose time on my own people who want to write something on us, yet are not ready to accept what they are writing for themselves. The mission Allah gave me to deliver to my people is not to be commercialized on. It is the same type of message that the Prophets Noah, Lot, Abraham and Moses delivered to their people; A warning to separate from the people God will destroy, and flee for refuge in Allah. This is the basic message that I am delivering today to the so-called American Negroes. Elijah Muhammad, Messenger of Allah.”
Also included is an earlier letter to Pinkney from Muhammad’s secretary B. Cushmeer, 4 June 1963, which struck a more welcoming tone: “Mr. Muhammad asked me to please inform you that it is all right with him that you give your desired questionnaires to the Believers or Muslims of New York.”
Estimate
$400 – $600
Martin Luther King, Jr.
246
Martin luther king.
Early draft of the Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Birmingham, AL, 16 April 1963 (printed shortly after)
11 period Xeroxed pages, 11 x 8½ inches, staple-bound in upper left corner; minor uneven toning, minimal wear.
Offered here is a possibly unique prepublication draft of “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” which remains one of Martin Luther King’s most enduring works. It was written under difficult circumstances. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference carried out non-violent protests in Birmingham, Alabama in defiance of a local judge’s injunction. He was arrested on 12 April 1963. That day, eight local white clergymen penned a “Call for Unity” in the local newspaper, urging demonstrators to seek redress through the courts rather than by following outside agitators and disobeying the law. From his cell, King penned an enduring deconstruction of his moderate fellow clergymen, making the case for civil disobedience in the face of unjust laws.
The letter began on jumbled notes on scraps of paper smuggled to King by a prison guard, and as King and the SCLC staff recognized its power, it went through various revisions and was distributed locally to churches before making its first partial print appearance on 19 May 1963. From there, it appeared in hundreds of different publications–books, newspapers, magazines, and in pamphlet form, often with subtle textual variations. Although King’s original manuscript has long since disappeared, several early drafts of the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” have been traced by Stanford University’s King Papers Project. No other examples of the present draft have been found.
The textual history of the Letter has been discussed in several books on King, showing that several typescripts were prepared by at least two different teams of SCLC members using different typewriters, led by Wyatt Tee Walker and Addine Drew (see Diane McWhorter, Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution, pages 354 and 390). E. Culpepper Clark in a 1993 essay noted that “a duplicated copy of the letter did circulate in Birmingham, but the date of its distribution is not known” (see “The American Dilemma in King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail,’” in Calloway-Thomas and Lucaites, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Sermonic Power of Public Discourse, page 35). In 2001, S. Jonathan Bass wrote “Adding to the confusion surrounding the letter’s production were the slightly different versions of the document produced by the SCLC publicity corps” (Blessed Are the Peacemakers, page 138). A 2013 book asserted that “Mimeographed copies of the ‘Letter’ appeared in black churches in May” (Jonathan Rieder, Gospel of Freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, page 103).
The present 11-page draft is in single-spaced format and electrostatically duplicated, while most other pre-publication typed drafts are 19 to 22 pages in length, double-spaced and mimeographed. It generally follows the earliest known complete drafts of the letter, but differs in dozens of places from most standard published versions, and also in some places from the other known early drafts–in both text and formatting. For example, on page 5, “higher moral law” has been changed to “mighter moral law.” In published versions, King quotes a series of religious leaders: “Was not Martin Luther an extremist? – ‘Here I stand; I can do no other so help me God.’ Was not John Bunyan an extremist? – ‘I will stay in jail to the end of my days.’” In the present copy, on page 7, Luther’s quote is omitted and Bunyan’s quote given to him, so it reads “Was not Martin Luther an extremist? – “I will stay in jail to the end of my days.’” A color-coded annotated guide accompanies the lot (adapted from a documentary edition of the text in the 2001 Bass book), showing many differences between this and other early drafts. The consignor’s extensive research and correspondence notes are also included.
Provenance: acquired with papers of the Inter-Citizens Committee, which worked to investigate and publicize cases of police brutality and harassment in Birmingham from 1960 to 1965, and thence by William Gregory, Books & Photographs. A copy is on file with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University.
Estimate
$15,000 – $25,000
"MY DEMAND IN WASHINGTON IS: REPENT, AMERICA!"
247
Martin luther king.
Reel-to-reel tape recording of Dr. King speaking to the SCLC board, January 1968.
Atlanta, GA, 17 January 1968
¼-inch audio tape wound onto 7-inch green plastic Ampex reel, housed in metal cannister; minimal wear.
Any piece of oratory by Dr. King is a part of the nation’s heritage, but this is not just any speech. It was given at a planning meeting for the last of his great protest movements: the Poor People’s Campaign. The audience was a large group of leaders and staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which he had founded and led for ten years as his primary vehicle for activism. Here before his most loyal followers, we can hear shouts of affirmation and rueful laughter from the audience.
The stakes were high; the Poor People’s Campaign would soon be publicized and launched, but the group was still debating its tactics and list of demands. King told the Atlanta Constitution that an “idea task force” was presently preparing demands for Congress, adding that “we’re trying to provide an alternative to the long hot summer” (17 January 1968).
King’s central argument was the need to reach Washington on the side of justice, without getting slowed down by the details: “We are moving around the right issue. It’s a simple thing. Jobs are income. , , , We are talking about bread now. We are talking about the right to eat, the right to live, this is what we’re going to Washington about. . . . The nation needs this. We don’t have to worry about just jobs or income. Let’s get to Washington. And after we get there, and stay a few days, call the peace movement in. . . . I don’t know what Jesus had as his demands, other than ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.’ My demand in Washington is Repent, America!”
The power of demonstrations, if channeled to non-violence, is discussed at length: “The nation needs a movement now. . . . and I say to you that many of our confusions are dissolved, they are distilled in demonstrations. . . . They have served the purpose of giving people new senses of dignity and destiny.” Apparently motioning to SCLC staff member Lester Hankerson, a former street gang leader, he said “Lester wouldn’t be here today if there hadn’t been some demonstrations around Savannah, he’d probably be out there in jail somewhere, not for demonstrations but for other reasons. But Lester became a man, and a person committed to moral purposes, through demonstrations. The sociologists don’t write about it much, but whenever you have demonstrations in a community, the crime rate goes down.” Demonstrations were King’s tool and he had clearly thought through their impact: “In dangerous moments, people begin to hold hands that didn’t know they could hold them. The question of black and white goes out in a demonstration. We will argue it philosophically, but out on that line, black folk and white folk get together in a strange way. And I’m saying many of the things we argue about, segregation or integration, will be dealt with in demonstrations. . . . The nation needs a movement. And the questions we argue about, violence and non-violence, will be dealt with in a demonstration. . . . Hope is the final refusal to give up. In this sense it has a medicinal quality. . . . As we go into these communities, we go with the hope that we can move this sick nation away from at least a level of its sickness.”
King also uses a series of analogies and parables to make his points–some religious, some not. He calls upon the national religion of baseball by recounting a rousing walk-off victory by his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers, who he had rooted for since Jackie Robinson’s arrival in 1947. Oddly enough, his central parable is about the great 19th-century Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, who is said to have broken his A string just after the intermission of his performance. Rather than give up in despair, Bull improvised a transposition of the whole performance to the three remaining strings and finished flawlessly. You might not be able to turn a story about a long-dead Norwegian violinist into a powerful metaphor, but you are not Martin Luther King. He reflected upon the victories and stumbles of the SCLC over the past seven years: “We don’t have much. The people we are going to be recruiting don’t have much. Their A strings have broken. We in this movement have had our disappointments, we’ve had our failures, we’ve had our moments of agony. Our A strings are broken. We went to Albany, Georgia and things didn’t come out like we wanted to see them come out, and everybody said SCLC is finished, movement is finished, the A string broke down in Albany, but we transposed the composition in Birmingham and finished on three strings. Some people say we failed in Chicago. I haven’t concluded that, but we certainly didn’t do everything in Chicago that we set out to do. And I never will forget one day an agreement was reached, and Chicago didn’t live up to that agreement. A string broke, I look back over, and I wish we had gone to Cicero now, but don’t worry about these things, you make mistakes, in any game. If you run your football down the goal, don’t be upset about fumbling the ball, just try and recover it. We are going to Washington and we are going to transpose the composition.” King apparently saw the Poor People’s Campaign as a way to redeem the Chicago Freedom Movement, which had ended with a fizzle in 1966 when some of his more radical supporters had instead wanted to march on the white suburb of Cicero.
King drives toward his conclusion with a series of rhetorical flourishes like a fireworks display: “That is a law in this universe: when it is dark enough, you can see the stars. There is a law in this universe, no lie can live forever. There is a law in this universe, truth crushed to earth will rise again. . . . I go away with this faith. I don’t know if I’ll see all of you before April, but I send you forth as Jesus said to his disciples as sheep amid wolves, be ye as strong and as tough as a serpent and as tender as a dove and we will be able to do something that will give new meaning to our own lives, I hope new meaning to the life of the nation. I may not see you before, but I’ll meet you in Washington.” King never made it to Washington to see the launch of the campaign.
This tape has 23½ minutes of King’s speech, beginning in mid-sentence but apparently near the beginning of his remarks. The remarks are repeated twice on the tape, with the second appearance much clearer in sound. More extensive notes transcribed from King’s remarks are available upon request. A digital audio file of King’s remarks will be provided to the winning bidder.
Provenance: Estate of C. Clarence Mayfield, lawyer for the SCLC and NAACP in Savannah, GA who died in 1996; acquired by the consignor at auction in 2017 and loaned to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture for their temporary exhibit, "City of Hope: Resurrection City & the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign" from December 2018 to February 2019.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
248
Our Struggle: The Story of Montgomery.
New York: Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), 1956
[8] pages. 8vo, self-wrappers; vertical fold, minor wear.
An offprint from the April 1956 issue of Liberation, with cover art by Rosetta Bakish and 2 photographs.
Estimate
$300 – $400
249
Group of 7 press photos of Dr. King.
Vp, 1957-67
Original prints and wire photos, most about 8 x 10 inches, various markings on verso; moderate wear.
The highlight of this lot is probably a portrait taken of King during his first public visit to St. Louis, 10 x 7½ inches, 10 April 1957 (illustrated). An original print rather than a wire photo, it bears the inked stamp of the photographer Edward Burkhardt on verso, and a strip of 4 negatives is taped down. Also included are a smaller original print of King with Rev. Abraham Lincoln Davis Jr. and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, 6 x 7¾ inches, 15 February 1957 (the day of the second organizational meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference); King in Montgomery, AL, urging a bus boycott on 22 March 1956 (later 30 July 1963 AP print); with Floyd McKissick in Grenada, MS, 15 June 1966; in collage with white Chicago leaders, 17 August 1966; at a Chicago news conference on urban rioting, 26 July 1967; and with Coretta Scott King, preparing to leave for his 5-day jail sentence in Birmingham, 30 October 1967.
Estimate
$600 – $900
250
Come and Hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Street Corner Meetings . . . Get Out the Vote!
[Cleveland, OH], 23 October 1964
Printed handbill, 9 x 6 inches; toning, minimal wear.
An advertisement for 5 Cleveland appearances by Dr. King shortly before the 1964 election. None others traced in OCLC or at auction.
Estimate
$250 – $350
251
louw, joseph; photographer.
Iconic photograph taken moments after the King assassination.
[Memphis, TN, 4 April 1968]
Photograph, 11 x 14 inches, with inked stamp on verso reading “Joseph Louw, Public Broadcast Laboratory, copyright Time Inc., OA74695”; worn with numerous creases, moderate staining in lower margin, pencil notes and inked note “Limbo” on verso.
When Martin Luther King was shot on the balcony of his Memphis hotel, Joseph Louw (1939-2003) was the only photographer on the scene. Louw was a mixed-race South African who had fled to America after breaking his country’s apartheid laws. In April 1968, he was following Dr. King for the Public Broadcasting Laboratory. He was in his hotel room when the shots rang out, and rushed out to the balcony to capture this iconic image, as King’s aides pointed to the rooftop from where the shots had been fired. Louw’s negatives were developed at a Time-Life darkroom in New York. Early print appearances of the photograph such as in the May 1968 issue of Ebony credit him as a photographer for “Public Broadcast Laboratory @ Time, Inc.,” similar to the credit stamp in the present example; it is substantially larger than the typical press photo. Louw returned to Africa the following year and remained far from the spotlight.
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
252
Group of 9 press photos of Coretta Scott King and the King family.
Vp, 1968-74
Wire photos, various sizes, about 9 x 8 inches; various markings and some clippings on verso, one cropped, one toned.
Coretta Scott King is shown speaking with Nelson Rockefeller in Atlanta, 24 May 1968; clasping hands and singing at a memorial event with Ralph Abernathy and others, 4 June 1968; in a posed office portrait, 16 June 1968; with two of her children at Kennedy Airport, 15 March 1969; with A. Philip Randolph and Nelson Rockefeller, 7 May 1969; leading strikers in prayer in Charleston, SC, 24 August 1969; with British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, 9 February 1970; and on the phone in front of a portrait of Dr. King, 16 December 1970. Also included is a shot of Martin Luther King Sr. with Dr. King’s nephew Derek Barber King at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 7 July 1974. With–a pair of duplicate prints of mourners at Dr. King’s funeral, 8 April 1968.
Estimate
$400 – $600
253
Signed cover of Life Magazine featuring Coretta Scott King.
Np, 19 April 1968
Magazine cover, 13½ x 10½ inches, with headline “America’s Farewell in Anger and Grief” and caption “Mrs. Martin Luther King at the funeral service” featuring iconic photograph of Coretta Scott King by Flip Schulke; horizontal fold, moderate wear, dampstaining faintly visible on recto, retouched at extremities and mailing label, 2 tape remnants on verso; signed “Coretta Scott King” in ballpoint pen to right of caption.
Estimate
$250 – $350
INSCRIBED TO OPERA STAR MARIAN ANDERSON
254
coretta scott king.
My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr.
New York, [1969]
16 pages of photographs. ix, [3], 372 pages. 8vo, publisher’s cloth, a bit musty, minimal wear; minimal wear to contents; in unclipped dust jacket, minor wear; signed and inscribed by the author on front free endpaper.
First edition. The inscription reads, “To Miss Marian Anderson, with respect, admiration, and profound appreciation to you for your matchless contribution through song to the life and culture of our nation. Coretta Scott King.” Anderson is discussed in the book on page 238.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
255
tom mckinney, artist.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., 1929-1968 . . . Thank God Almighty I’m Free at Last.
Np, October 1970
Poster, 23¾ x 35 inches; minor edge wear, light partial folds.
A panorama of key events from Dr. King’s life by a Black artist who remains active today. None others traced at auction or in OCLC, though one is held by the Oakland Museum.
Estimate
$400 – $600
256
Martin luther king.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream.”
New York and Atlanta, GA: various publishers, 1964 copyright
Poster, 25 x 19 inches, on card stock; moderate war including tack holes and 3 short cello tape repairs.
A large portrait of Dr. King is juxtaposed with the entirety of his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, with a small outline of Africa below. This poster has perhaps the most complicated credit lines we have ever seen, including (but not limited to) the School of African-American Arts, Blackness Incorporated, Great Great Grandchildren Publishing Co., African-American Art International Publishing Company (New York), and Culture Task Force (Atlanta). The designer and copyright holder Richard McCrary also did a popular Angela Davis poster, “I Am a Black Woman!”, in 1971. The copyright here is given as 1964, but the design and lettering look more like a 1970s production.
Estimate
$400 – $600
257
Large flier for the documentary “King: A Filmed Record, Montgomery to Memphis.”
New York: Institute for Nonviolent Social Change, [1970]
Tri-fold flier, 10¾ x 34 inches unfolded; minor wear, marked “Rec’d 12-15-71” in ink, very short closed tear with tape repair.
Promotional flier for an important documentary which was screened for one night only in theaters across the country in 1970, and then was rarely seen again until its 2010 DVD re-release. One side features a panoramic photograph of King addressing the March on Washington, while the other side has 4 pages of smaller photographs, reviews, and captions.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Literature
WHEATLEY'S FIRST MAGAZINE APPEARANCE
258
phillis wheatley.
Recollection, to Miss A__ M__, Humbly Inscribed by the Authoress,
London, May 1772
in the March 1772 issue of The London Magazine. Pages [97]-148. 8vo, disbound; lacking the 3 plates (none of them relating to Wheatley), minimal wear.
The first appearance of Wheatley’s fourth published poem, and her first magazine appearance of any kind–preceded only by a broadside, a pamphlet printing, and newspaper appearances. Her book, “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral,” was published in London the following year.
The poem appears here on pages 134-135. It is prefaced by a short note from a Boston subscriber describing Wheatley: “There is in this town a young Negro woman, who left her country at ten years of age, and has been in this eight years. She is . . . an accomplished mistress of her pen, and discovers a most surprising genius. . . . The following was occasioned by her being in company with some young ladies of family, when one of them said she did not remember, among all the poetical pieces she had seen, ever to have met with a poem upon Recollection. The African (so let me call her, for so in fact she is) took the hint, went home to her master’s, and soon sent what follows.” The poem is further prefaced with a dedication note by the author, who is attributed only as “Your very humble servant, Phillis.”
The poem begins with a plea to Mneme, the Greek muse of memory, to “inspire . . . your vent’rous Afric in the deep design.” It was revised substantially for its book appearance the following year, including that line (changed to “your vent’rous Afric in her great design”).
For a summary of Wheatley’s early published works, see Mukhtar Ali Isani, “The Contemporaneous Reception of Phillis Wheatley: Newspaper and Magazine Notices during the Years of Fame, 1765-1774,” in The Journal of Negro History, Autumn, 2000 (85:4), pages 260-273. We have traced no earlier works by Wheatley at auction since 1935.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
THE FIRST BOOK BY AN AFRICAN AMERICAN
259
phillis wheatley.
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.
First edition. London, 1773.
Frontispiece portrait. 124, [4] pages. Small 8vo, later ½ morocco, moderate wear; frontispiece detached with moderate wear, moderate foxing; later armorial bookplate on front pastedown, private library embossed stamp on front free endpaper.
Phillis Wheatley (circa 1753-1784) was born in Senegal and sold into American slavery when she was about eight years old. She was permitted an unusual degree of formal education by her owner, a Boston merchant named John Wheatley, who encouraged her literary efforts. On a visit to England in 1773, she arranged the publication of this volume of poems, and was given her manumission shortly afterward. Her poetry came to the attention of George Washington, Thomas Paine, John Paul Jones, and Thomas Jefferson, but she nonetheless worked as a scullery maid to pay her bills, and died in poverty at the age of 31.
This volume includes, in addition to Wheatley's poems, a dedication to the Countess of Huntington who had sponsored the publication, Wheatley's two-page preface, and an endorsement by her owner John Wheatley. It also includes a remarkable endorsement by a board of 17 distinguished Bostonians including Governor Thomas Hutchinson and future governor John Hancock, announcing that "we whose names are under-written, do assure the World, that the Poems . . . were (as we verily believe) written by Phillis, a young Negro Girl, who was but a few Years since, brought an uncultivated Barbarian from Africa, and has ever since been, and now is, under the Disadvantage of serving as a Slave in a Family in this Town."
The iconic frontispiece portrait of Wheatley is present and well-preserved. It is often credited to Scipio Moorhead, who much like Wheatley practiced his craft while in a state of slavery in Boston. A poem in this volume is dedicated to him: "To S.M. a young African Painter, on seeing his works" (pages 114-5).
In the annals of African-American literature, Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects was preceded only by poems in broadside or short pamphlet form (by Jupiter Hammon and Wheatley herself), and by the 1770 Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars by James Gronniosaw, who had spent many years as a slave and freedman in America, but published his narrative after settling in England. Afro-Americana 11111; Blockson, One Hundred and One, 68; Church 1101; Sabin 103136; Stoddard 237 (conforming to all Edition 1 points); Wegelin 434.
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
FIRST SPANISH TRANSLATION OF WHEATLEY?
260
phillis wheatley.
“Literaturas de los Negros,” in a Mexican literary magazine, Recreo de las Familias.
Mexico, [1837]-1838
16 lithograph plates (none of Wheatley). 482 pages. 8vo, contemporary speckled gilt calf, minor wear; foxing to plates.
The article “Literaturas de los Negros” begins with a biography of the poet Phillis Wheatley, and Spanish translations of three of her poems are included: “Sobre la Muerte de un Niño Negro” (“On the Death of J.C., an Infant”); “Himno de la Mañana” (“An Hymn to the Morning”); and “Al Conde Darmouth” (“To the Rt. Hon. William, Earl Of Dartmouth”). They are taken from Henri Gregore’s 1808 “De la littérature des Nègres,” and thus presumably translated from English to French to Spanish. They appear to be the first Spanish-language translations of Wheatley’s work in print.
The volume is a complete compilation of the 12 issues of a Mexican literary magazine in book form, with a collective title page in place of the monthly title pages. The other entries lean heavily toward Spanish-language authors, with some exceptions including Victor Hugo and Lord Byron. An article on William / Guillermo Miller, the British-born hero of Chilean and Peruvian independence, appears on pages 64-70, and a comparison of George Washington with Simón Bolívar on pages 463-5. We trace none others at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
The first biography written by a Black woman.
261
susan paul.
Memoir of James Jackson, the Attentive and Obedient Scholar, who Died in Boston . . . Aged Six Years..
Boston: James Loring, 1835
88 pages. 12mo, contemporary ¼ calf with original printed spine label, minor wear; minor foxing, final leaf torn at fore-edge without loss of text, otherwise minimal wear.
With—the modern scholarly edition of the Memoir edited by Lois Brown, Harvard University Press, 2000.
Susan Paul (1809-1841) came from an activist family. Her father, Thomas Paul, was a Baptist minister and an active member of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. She became a teacher and organized the Juvenile Choir of Boston composed of her students, ages 3 to 10, and was moved by the death of one of these little children to write a memoir of his short life. She recounts the “incidents in the life of a little colored boy” for a juvenile audience, addressing issues of color and prejudice through stories and parables.
Helpful tip for book scouts: another unrelated book was published in Boston in 1835 titled “A Memoir of James Jackson, Jr., M.D., with Extracts from His Letters.” That one is not worth quite as much.
Afro-Americana Supplement 1660; not in Blockson. 7 in OCLC, and only one other example traced at auction, a worn example which appeared at a Swann sale, 27 March 2014, lot 109.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,500
262
frances ellen watkins harper.
Sketches of Southern Life.
Philadelphia: Merrihew & Son, 1886
58 pages. 12mo, original printed wrappers, stained, moderate wear, front wrapper coming detached; intermittent foxing, minimal dampstaining, minor wear to contents; the author’s Philadelphia address inscribed on the inner front wrapper, signature of early owner C.C. Crosby of Garnavillo, Iowa on front wrapper.
Third edition. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was an active abolitionist in the 1850s, and became one of the first Black women to reach prominence in literature. Many of the poems in this collection relate to Reconstruction; also included is a short story, “Shalmanezer, Prince of Cosman.” “Mrs. Harper’s verse is frankly propagandist, a metrical extension of her life dedicated to the welfare of others. She believed in art for humanity’s sake”–Joan Sherman, Invisible Poets: Afro-Americans of the Nineteenth Century, page 67. This edition not listed in Porter, North American Negro Poets, page 43; one copy of this edition listed in OCLC, at Temple University. No copies of any edition traced at auction since 2004. Provenance: Caroline C. Gibbs Crosby (1831-1909), whose husband James O. Crosby (1828-1921) was a prominent Iowa attorney and advocate for “education of the negro” according to his obituary; purchased by the consignor at a Crosby family estate sale, 2016.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
263
james weldon johnson.
God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse.
New York: Viking Press, 1927
8 plates. [8], 56 pages. 4to, cloth-backed decorative paper-covered boards, minor wear; partly unopened; printed in black and gold; inscribed on front free endpaper “Sincerely, James Weldon Johnson, February 8 1929.”
First edition, second printing, of the best-known literary work by the lyricist behind “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The 8 illustrations are by Aaron Douglas, and the section title lettering is by white artist Charles Buckles Falls (known for his World War One posters such as “Books Wanted for Our Men”).
Estimate
$300 – $400
264
4 issues of Black Opals, the legendary limited-edition literary journal.
Philadelphia: Reading Advertising Service, 1927-28
16; 16; 20; 20 pages. 4 volumes. 8vo, original illustrated wrappers, minimal wear, light spotting to two issues; minimal wear to contents; uncut, issue #3 unopened; each signed and inscribed by editor Nellie Bright on title page and elsewhere, issue #1 also signed on page 1 by Langston Hughes and 3 others, issue #3 also signed by 3 others. Limited editions, numbered #29 of 250, #3 of 250, unnumbered copy out of 250, and #193 of 200.
A complete run of the important run of Philadelphia’s short-lived but influential literary magazine, “Black Opals,” closely tied to the Harlem Renaissance. Subtitled “Hail Negro Youth,” it featured work by leading “New Negro” authors including Alain Locke, Jessie Redmon Fauset, and Langston Hughes. These were the personal copies of Nellie Rathbone Bright (1898-1977), who served on the journal’s 4-person editorial team. Each one is inscribed by her on the front wrapper. Other key figures were co-editor Arthur Huff Fauset (1899-1983), and artistic director Allan Randall Freelon, whose etching graces the first three covers. Gwendolyn Bennett served as guest editor of issue #2. The final issue has 3 full-page illustrations, by Smith McGlinn, Loïs Mailou Jones, and James Lesesne Wells (who also did that issue’s cover illustration).
Interest in Black Opals remains strong. In 2017, an event at Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Library was dedicated to its influence. Not in Lomazow’s American Periodicals. We trace 13 American institutions which hold scattered issues of Black Opals, but only two (the Schomburg Library and the Free Library of Philadelphia) which hold a complete run of all four issues. Additional details on the contents are available upon request.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,500
265
Letters to poet and editor Nellie Bright from Jessie Redmon Fauset, Laura Wheeler Waring, and more.
Vp, 1927-49 and undated
17 letters in one folder; condition generally strong; 6 with original stamped envelopes.
Author and educator Nellie Rathbone Bright (1898-1977) was best known for her work on the 1920s literary magazine Black Opals (see lot 264). A University of Pennsylvania graduate, she spent 17 years as a principal in the Philadelphia school system. Offered here are a wide-ranging variety of letters addressed to Bright over the course of her career, a few of them referencing her work on Black Opals. Highlights include:
Autograph Letter Signed from notable artist Laura Wheeler Waring (1887-1948). Addressed to the members of the Laura Wheeler Art Club at the Durham School where Bright taught, it thanks the students for a Christmas handkerchief. An additional personal note to Bright is inserted. The artist participated in the Harmon Foundation’s first exhibition for African American art later that year. Westchester, PA, 7 January 1927.
A pair of Autograph Letters Signed from author Jessie Redmon Fauset Harris (1882-1961), former editor of the Crisis. In the first she writes after a visit to Bright: “Everything in your home helped me–the lovely house, the fire, the rum, the lunch, and the good talk. I enjoyed those few moments of confidence between us.” The second describes her pleasant vacation in Atlantic City, NJ: “I don’t imagine the board-walk has its equal anywhere. All along I kept thinking of what a lovely, spontaneous talk we had, and also of those poems. I hope you will finish them up.” Montclair, NJ, 10 February and 9 July 1948.
Letter Signed from composer Alton A. Adams, a native of the Virgin Islands and the first Black bandmaster in the United States Navy. He reflects on the death of Black Lutheran minister Daniel E. Wiseman, and concludes with a discussion of his own work: “Enclosed you’ll find a picture of my band. . . . They are a fine bunch. We have a good band now. My work has been specially commended to the Navy Department by the command here. . . . I will organize and head a Virgin Islands navy band by authority of the Navy Department.” He encloses a Real Photo postcard of his Virgin Islands Navy Band. Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 7 October 1942.
Letter Signed from attorney Raymond Pace Alexander, inviting Bright to a meeting with Carter Woodson to start a Philadelphia chapter of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Philadelphia, 7 November 1927.
Pair of letters signed by James H. Young, Bright’s collaborator on Black Opals. About a rival publication, he writes: “I have seen Lightning . . . but as you say Black Opals undoubtedly will surpass it in every detail, at least I am sure everyone will catch our point of view.” Germantown, PA, circa 1928.
Autograph Letter Signed from Black opera singer Florence Cole-Talbert (1890-1961), a mentor to Marian Anderson: “I have received Black Opals. . . . I am happy to see the names of new young writers among your contributors. . . . I am to sing with the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra Jan. 28 and it will be broadcasted by KFJ.” Los Angeles, CA, 7 January 1929.
Pair of Autograph Letters Signed by Black artist Frank J. Dillon. In the second he writes “I have done quite a bit of painting including all branches, which has kept my funds in reasonably good shape. Mount Holly, NJ, 18 March 1929 and 22 November 1942.
Autograph Letter Signed by pioneering Black Bermudian golfer Louis Rafael Corbin, mentioning his most famous student: “Joe Louis will make about $1000 per game while I will get about $750. . . . Will be in Philadelphia for the Negro Nat’l.” Hamilton, Bermuda, 21 May 1947.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
266
wallace thurman.
Letter promoting (and defending) his literary journal Fire!!
New York, circa December 1926
Circular Letter, signed by secretary, 10¾ x 8¼ inches, on letterhead of "Fire!! Devoted to Younger Negro Artists"; mailing folds, one word added in manuscript, minimal wear.
“Fire!!” was a controversial and extremely short-lived literary magazine edited by Wallace Thurman (1902-1934). Ahead of its time for its frank discussion of interracial romance, prostitution, and homosexuality, it met with a hostile response from the old guard of the Black press, and folded shortly after the release of its November 1926 first issue when its offices burned.
This circular letter, sent in the brief window between the first issue and the magazine’s demise, seeks donations and/or subscriptions. Listed alongside Thurman on the editorial staff are a cavalcade of heavyweights: Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Gwendolyn Bennett, and Aaron Douglas (who may well have done the art for this letterhead). Thurman writes: “Dear Friend: The first issue of FIRE has blazed its way into the historic annals of the American Negroe literary movement. . . . FIRE was and is a literary experiment. . . . You have no doubt seen the first issue, and have been either flabbergasted, shocked, surprised, or pleased. At any rate you have been provoked to some emotion. . . . Now won’t you do your share and send us either a subscription or a patron’s check?”
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
267
Press photograph of young Langston Hughes as a busboy.
Washington, DC: Underwood & Underwood, 5 December 1925
Photograph, 9 x 7, with 4½ x 7-inch caption slip affixed on verso, and inked agency stamp on verso; minor wear.
The poetry of Langston Hughes (1901-1967) first appeared in magazines in 1921, but he did not publish his first book, Weary Blues, until 1926. This photograph captures him just as he began to achieve national fame. The caption reads “Negro Bus Boy is Poetry Prize Winner. One night he was just one of the Negro bus boys scurrying here and there with empty dishes, ice, water bottles and more butter–and the next day he was Langston Hughes, prize winner of a poetry competition conducted by a magazine of national circulation.”
Estimate
$400 – $600
268
langston hughes.
His inscription on a program for a musical production of “Just a Little Simple.”
New York, 18 September [1950]
Double-sided flier, 9 x 6 inches, with mailing folds; inscribed in lower margin “I think you’d like this Simple–sort of Chaplinesque and touching. Langston.”
This theatrical adaptation of Hughes’s “Simple” stories was written by Alice Childress and produced by the Committee for the Negro in the Arts. Its debut at Harlem’s Club Baron was on 18 September, and it was scheduled for a 3-week run. We now know: Langston Hughes approved.
Estimate
$400 – $600
269
langston hughes.
Famous American Negroes.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1954
xi, [1], 147 pages. 4to, publisher’s cloth, minimal wear; in original dust jacket with moderate wear; signed and inscribed on the front free endpaper: “Especially for Henry Kraus—with sincere regard—Langston Hughes, New York, 2/26/54.”
The first of Hughes’s occasional ventures into history, featuring 17 short biographies ranging from Phillis Wheatley to Henry Ossawa Tanner to Jackie Robinson. Provenance: Henry Kraus (1906-1995), to whom the book was inscribed, was an early friend of Hughes from his high school days in Cleveland, renowned in his own right as a labor organizer and historian. The book was later a gift to the consignor’s stepmother, a friend of the Krauses.
Estimate
$300 – $400
270
langston hughes.
Letter denying press reports that he had dinner with Fidel Castro.
New York, 27 September 1960
Letter Signed to New York Post columnist Leonard Lyons. One page, 8½ x 5¼ inches, on his personal letterhead; mailing folds, minimal wear.
Fidel Castro, having recently consolidated his power as leader of Cuba, came to New York in September 1960 for the General Assembly of the United Nations. In the midst of the Cold War, Castro used this opportunity to deepen his alliance with the Soviet Union and accelerated his opposition to the United States. He stayed at the Theresa Hotel in Harlem, where a group called Fair Play for Cuba Committee hosted a dinner for him on 22 September. A popular syndicated columnist from the New York Post, Leonard Lyons, claimed that Hughes was in attendance–not an absurd claim, as Hughes had been deeply involved in leftist politics and causes as a young man, although he had become less overtly political by 1960. In this remarkable letter, Hughes categorically denies the columnist’s assertion:
“Dear Leonard Lyons, Just to put into writing the information I gave you today on the phone; in reference to the item in your LYONS DEN today where, like Daniel, I have been caught: I received no invitation to dine with or to meet Castro. I have never met Castro. I was not a guest at dinner Friday night or any other time at the Hotel Theresa or elsewhere with Castro. There have been about 20 phone calls this afternoon, including other newspapers calling. And just now Claudia McNeil of RAISIN IN THE SUN phoned from Boston to breathe a prayer for me in case it were true I had dined with such a ‘Satanic person.’ Claudia, as you probably know, is Catholic. I told her I’d been in the country working on the 10th version of my Theatre Guild play, TAMBOURINES TO GLORY, and knew nothing of it all, until I read it in your column. With cordial regards, and best wishes to you for a continued mass readership, Sincerely yours, Langston Hughes.”
The Swann staff was not at the Hotel Theresa that night, so we can’t say for certain what really happened–but a simple Internet search for Langston Hughes and Fidel Castro will turn up hundreds of modern sources stating that Hughes was there. We are inclined, however, to believe Hughes on this point.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
271
countee cullen.
Letter by the Harlem Renaissance poet, referring a writing job to his fellow poet Sterling Brown.
Tuckahoe, NY, 9 July 1944
Letter Signed to Mr. Shipley. One page, 11 x 8½ inches; folds, moderate edge wear, 3 tape repairs on verso.
Cullen writes: “I have read the article you sent me and find it very provocative but I do not feel that I want to tackle the job myself. Criticism is not one of my strong points. You might try sending it to Professor Sterling Brown at Howard University, Washington D.C. He is both a good poet and a good critic. I imagine he would be interested in doing such an article for you.” The letter’s recipient was likely the influential drama critic and editor Joseph T. Shipley of The New Leader, with whom Cullen has previously corresponded in 1933.
Estimate
$300 – $400
272
amiri baraka.
Answers in Progress.
Poster, 21½ x 17 inches, in red and black; 2 horizontal folds, moderate wear including 3 short closed tears, 3 tape remnants on verso, minor dampstaining.
The poet LeRoi Jones (soon to become Amiri Baraka) founded Jihad Productions to release music and poetry. This poster is a 1969 printing of a poem copyrighted in 1967.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
PLAY AND HANDBILL
273
amiri baraka.
What Was the Relationship of the Lone Ranger to the Means of Production?
Pamphlet: 3 photographic illustrations. [1], 32, [5] pages. 4to. 8¼ x 6¾ inches, color pictorial self-wrappers, minimal wear. Handbill: 8½ x 14 inches, blue on white; vertical fold and minor wear.
This overtly political play was produced by the Yenan Theater Workshop, set among workers at a General Motors plant. The pamphlet includes the full script, background material, and reproductions of 3 photographs. The accompanying handbill lists the cast and performance dates at the Ladies Fort in Manhattan for a 3-week run, 18 May to 9 June (apparently in 1979). Both feature the same illustration of Uncle Sam wearing a Lone Ranger mask.
Estimate
$300 – $400
274
Malcolm X addressing a rally at Lenox Avenue and 115th Street in Harlem.
New York, [29 June 1963]
Photograph, 7 x 9 inches, with Associated Press Newsfeatures inked stamp and typed caption label on verso; minimal wear.
The caption on verso disputes the world view of Malcolm X: “The Negro may like to hear attacks on the white man, but he has a distaste for extremism, says a Negro authority.”
Estimate
$400 – $600
275
david mosley, artist.
Emancipation.
Np, 1969
Poster, 28½ x 22½ inches; edge wear including loss in margins at two corners, closed puncture just above Malcolm X’s head; not examined out of frame.
In the foreground is a representation of Thomas Ball’s paternalistic 1876 Emancipation Memorial, criticized by Frederick Douglass at its unveiling and often resented since. Looming larger in the background is Malcolm X, who appears to be addressing President Lincoln sternly. Only one other example traced, at the Library of Congress, naming the artist as Mobley.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
276
battle, artist.
Poster depicting Malcolm X as a heroic slayer of serpents.
Washington, DC: Pride, Inc., circa 1970
Poster, 24 x 20 inches; minimal wear.
Malcolm X is shown wrestling a serpent which is strangling the Black community. This was published by Pride Inc., a job training and civil rights organization founded in 1967 by young Marion Barry, the future Washington mayor. None others traced in OCLC or at auction.
Estimate
$600 – $900
277
The Man Malcolm X.
Detroit, MI: Board of Education, April 1970
7 pages, 11 x 8¼ inches, self-wrappers with illustrated first page; moderate foxing and minor wear.
A curriculum guide to Malcolm X produced for Detroit schools. Includes an introductory statement by school department officials, a 3-page biography describing him as “the father of a movement”; 19 suggestions for classroom activities; and an extensive bibliography. The biography was “adapted from one originally prepared by Miss Betty DeRamus, free lance writer,” then an unknown young writer and now a member of the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame. Stated 3rd edition, but none of any edition traced in OCLC or at auction.
Estimate
$300 – $400
THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED INTERRACIAL KISS?
278
(medicine.) edward bliss foote.
Science in Story. Sammy Tubbs, the Boy Doctor, and Sponsie, the Troublesome Monkey.
New York: Murray Hill, 1874
Numerous illustrations. 5 volumes. 12mo, publisher’s gilt pictorial cloth, minor wear; minimal wear to contents; edges tinted red; early owner’s bookplates on front pastedowns.
The author of this series, Dr. Edward Bliss Foote (1829-1906) was a white physician, birth control and public hygiene advocate, and civil rights advocate. This very unusual series introduces children to medicine and anatomy via a young Black man and his pet, a “troublesome monkey.” Foote covered some difficult territory in Volume 5, which bears a preface that some may find it “unsuitable to children.” The female and male reproduction systems are shown in graphic (but not very erotic) cutaways on pages 180½ and 180¾ (“this leaf can be cut out if thought advisable”). Yet more controversially, Sammy is described as escorting young Miss Julia Barkenstir to her home, where he gave her a not very platonic kiss goodnight in the doorway–shown here in a half-page engraving on page 203. It is believed to be the first interracial kiss depicted in the United States. The “Publishers’ Announcement” on pages 228-230 of Volume 1 reveals that the numerous illustrations throughout the volumes are mostly from original pen-and-ink sketches by prominent illustrator Henry Louis Stephens. Blockson 6297.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Military History
279
(military–american revolution.) j.h. bufford, lithographer.
Boston Massacre, March 5th, 1770.
Boston: Thomas A. Arms, 1856
Chromolithograph, 20 x 25 inches; several tears in margin, one extending an inch into the image, laid down on modern heavy paper.
A dramatic depiction of the Boston Massacre. Crispus Attucks is rightfully depicted as the central figure, apparently already having suffered his mortal wound but grasping the bayonet of a redcoat as he falls. William Champney was the artist.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
280
(military–american revolution.)
Bounty list for enlisted soldiers, including two Black soldiers.
[Hanover, MA], circa March 1777
4 pages, 7½ x 4½ inches, on one folding sheet, apparently removed from a larger memorandum book; minor wear, scrapbook remnants on two pages.
A list of soldiers who enlisted in the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment from Hanover, MA circa March 1777. The regiment fought under Colonel John Bailey at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777, suffered through the long winter at Valley Forge, and then saw further combat in the Battle on Monmouth in June 1778. At least two of the soldiers on this list were Black: Cuffe Tilden and Prince Bailey. The list names 34 soldiers in all, including Tilden, Bailey and 9 others who were paid £14 recruitment bounties; 5 who were later drafted on 15 May 1777; and 19 including Colonel Bailey who are simply listed, in a different hand.
Cuffe Tilden had been raised in slavery in Hanover, MA as the property of Job Tilden, who was his town’s leading slave merchant. Cuffe died with his regiment at Valley Forge in January 1778.
Prince Bailey served a full three-year term with the 2nd Massachusetts, was married in Hanover in October 1780, and survived to apply for a pension in 1817. In his application he explained: “When I was about eight years of age, I was stolen from Africa, my native country, and brought to America; my native name was Prince Dunsick–but on my arrival I was called by my master’s name which was Bailey. . . . I never lived with my old master Bailey afterwards, and resumed my former name of Dunsick.” See Crowder, African Americans and American Indians in the Revolutionary War, page 17. He lived in Maine after the war, and died in 1838.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
281
(military–american revolution.)
Pair of pay documents for Black soldier Samuel Pomp.
Hartford, CT, 1780 and 1782
Pair of party-printed documents completed in manuscript, 6½ x 7 inches and 4 x 8½ inches; folds and minor wear.
The earlier of these two documents is a pay order receipt, “Received . . . to secure the Payment of twenty-eight pounds . . . being the Balance due to Sam’l Pomp on the first Day of January last.” It was signed by Eben Ledyard “in behalf of s’d Pomp” in Hartford, CT on 23 October 1780. The docketing on verso explains that the payment was for Pomp’s service in the 1st Regiment.
The second document is a pay bond: “The State of Connecticut doth owe unto Samuel Pomp who hath served in the Connecticut Line of the Continental Army, the sum of Three Pounds . . . which sum shall be paid to him or his Order at this Office” in June 1787 “with Lawful Interest thereof.” It is signed by Peter Colt as treasurer, Hartford, 1 June 1782. The army which defeated the British was determined, but not well funded. Soldiers (white and black) were often paid with nearly worthless paper money, or in bonds–a promise that they would be repaid for their service after the war.
Samuel Pomp served for 7 months at the outset of the war in 1775 in the 6th Connecticut Regiment under Colonel Samuel Holden Parsons, a unit which helped capture Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
282
(military–civil war.)
Tintype portrait of a servant named Gabriel with a Rhode Island artillery battery.
[Brandy Station, VA?], 10 April 1864
Sixteenth-plate tintype photograph, 1¾ x 1½ inches, light creasing; in period metal mat, mounted in slightly larger period case, 3 x 2½ inches.
The tintype has a period paper note affixed on verso (photograph provided) reading “Gabriel, a servant of Lieut. Corthell, Battery G, 1st R.I. Lt. Artil’y. Gabe’s characteristic: happy as a clam. Apr. 10 1864.”
Elmer Lawrence Corthell (1840-1916), who employed Gabriel, had been a student at Brown University when the war broke out, enlisted as a private in the 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery, and then joined the officer ranks with the new Battery H in October 1862. As an officer with Battery H, he was mainly in and near Washington, seeing little combat. After his transfer to Battery G in early November 1863, he soon saw action at the Battle of Rappahannock Station, and then wintered at the major Union supply depot at Brandy Station in northern Virginia, where he remained through May. Gabriel quite possibly joined him that winter at Brandy Station, which was an active destination for “contraband” refugees from slavery.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
283
(military–civil war.)
Enlistment certificate for Rhode Island soldier Albert Crowell.
Providence, RI, 23 September 1863
Partially printed document, signed by the soldier, Lieutenant Colonel Nelson Viall as recruiting officer, and others. 2 pages, 9½ x 7½ inches; folds, minor foxing.
Albert Crowell was born in Halifax, VA, and is described as a farmer, 20 years old, 5’7”, with black hair, black eyes, and black complexion. He signed on for three years with the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, the state’s only “Colored” regiment, which was stationed in Louisiana. Crowell survived through the end of the war, mustering out as a corporal.
Estimate
$400 – $600
284
(military–civil war.)
Muster roll of a company of the 2nd Louisiana Native Guards.
Ship Island, MS, 31 August 1863
Partly-printed document, 21 x 31 inches, signed twice by Lieutenant Colonel Albert G. Hall as regimental commander, and by other company officers, by 3 of the enlisted men, and by numerous other enlisted men by mark; separations at folds, with early tape repairs on verso.
This muster and pay roll lists the 86 enlisted men of Company D, their dates of enlistment, and other notes covering July and August of 1863. Private Kenian Williams is recorded as having died in the hospital on 30 July. A later note in red pen shows that his back pay was finally awarded to his heirs in 1890. Similarly, a soldier who had been discharged for disability was paid in 1871; many others are noted as having been given a certificate of service in 1866. Several soldiers are listed as having performed “extra duty” as carpenters and blacksmiths. Almost all of the soldiers signed the pay roll by mark, but sergeants Charles Taylor and Samuel Thomas and musician George W. Weeks signed their own names. The regiment was later known as the 2nd Regiment, Corps d’Afrique, and then the 74th United States Colored Troops.
Estimate
$400 – $600
285
(military–spanish-american war.)
Pair of stereoviews of Buffalo Soldier regiments.
New York: Underwood & Underwood, 1898-99
Each with a pair of 3 x 3-inch albumen photographs on original 3½ x 7-inch photographer’s mounts; minimal wear.
“Troop A, Ninth U.S. Cavalry–Famous Indian Fighters,” copyright by Strohmeyer & Wyman in 1898, the year they joined the Rough Riders at San Juan Hill.
“The Famous 10th Colored Cavalry–that Climbed San Juan–Peace Jubilee, Philadelphia,” copyright by J.F. Jarvis in 1899.
Estimate
$250 – $350
286
(military–spanish american war.)
The Battle of Quasimas near Santiago … the 9th and 10th Colored Calvary in Support of Rough Riders.
Chicago: Kurz & Allison, 1899
Chromolithograph, 20 x 27¾ inches; moderate dampstaining, minor edge wear, uneven toning visible mainly from verso.
Shows the first land conflict of the war, the Battle of Las Guasimas on 24 June 1898, and in particular the important work of the “Buffalo Soldiers” in the 9th and 10th Cavalry regiments. The American forces were commanded by Joseph Wheeler, who had been a Confederate cavalry general during the Civil War.
Estimate
$500 – $750
287
(military–buffalo soldiers.) william g. muller.
The Twenty-Fourth Infantry, Past and Present.
Np, circa 1923
Numerous illustrations. [128] pages. 4to, publisher’s cloth, moderate wear; lacking free endpapers, front hinge split, moderate dampstaining and wear; long inscriptions by soldier James Oliver Johnson, a 1922 graduate of Lincoln University, on flyleaf and title page.
A history of the renowned Buffalo Soldier regiment, from its founding in 1869, through the Spanish-American War and the Mexican border conflict of 1916, and beyond. However, the regiment’s central role in the Houston Riot of 1917 is studiously avoided.
Estimate
$400 – $600
288
(military–world war two.)
Papers of Margaret P. Simmons of the Women’s Army Corps.
Vp, circa 1939 to 1993
Approximately 190 items in one box (0.2 linear feet); various sizes and conditions.
Margaret Perkins Simmons (1921-1996) was born in Texas and was living in Washington, DC in late 1943 when she enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps. She served in the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion–the only overseas battalion composed entirely of Black women. This collection consists mostly of photographs, including 4 English press photos of her battalion marching in formation in Birmingham, England, [1945]; 7 postcard-sized photographs of the battalion marching in formation; 2 formal color portraits of Simmons (one of them signed by Congressman Adam Clayton Powell); and 39 other personal photographs of Simmons and her fellow WACs and their wartime travels in Europe. Among the war-related ephemera is a letter of thanks from President Truman with his printed signature; and a clipping naming Simmons as guitarist in a 10-piece WAC orchestra. Among the numerous civilian papers are a card issued to Simmons by the New York Institute of Photography in 1939; and a group of 16 entertainment-industry publicity photographs of minor celebrities, some signed, and at least one with a “Photo by Simmons” stamp. As Margaret Fouche, she settled in the San Francisco area after the war.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
289
(military–world war two.)
Promotional file for the military revue “Harlem Hits the Tropics, Part II.”
Hawaii, March-April 1944
15 items: 6 8x10-inch promotional photographs produced by the Army Signal Corps; 4 pages of of manuscript promotional material; and 4 different typescript program sheets, all in their original manila folder with two clippings attached; minimal wear.
An interesting grouping from a touring show staged by and for Black servicemen across Hawaii. The director was Corporal Milton J. Williams, who had acted on Broadway in “Cabin in the Sky.” The actors were a mix of servicemen and local talent, including actress Betty Balingit, billed as “Hilo’s Shirley Temple.” A manuscript sheet (apparently used for introductions) gives the credentials of the Harlem Sultans sextet, featuring a veteran of Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra. The photographs show the band and actors at work, as well as a crowd of uniformed soldiers watching from their mess hall benches.
Estimate
$500 – $750
290
(military–world war two.)
Wartime album kept by a Washington woman documenting her serviceman brothers.
Vp, circa 1941-45
Approximately 100 photographs, most mounted on 15 scrapbook leaves, most captioned with names. Oblong 8vo album, original string-bound boards, minor wear.
Ola A. Mayo (born 1918) was raised as one of 12 children in rural Moneta, VA, and by 1940 had moved to Washington, DC to work as a domestic. In 1941 she married Sheppard A. Brandon (1919-1977), who joined the army the following year. Sheppard appears just a couple of times, as a civilian. Several other relatives in uniform do appear, including brothers William, Edward, and Samuel Mayo, and brother-in-law Sergeant Willie F. Brandon. Ola also seems to have found new work during the war. One snapshot shows her standing in front of a school bus, captioned “I am the driver.” A small percentage of the photographs are post-war.
Estimate
$400 – $600
291
(military–korean war.)
Kansas City family album showing a son’s naval service.
Vp, 1952-53 and undated
55 photographs laid in to 11 album leaves; album lacking covers, some photos loose or apparently removed, moderate wear to leaves.
In this family album, 14 of the photographs plus a clipping document the navy service of Lean Dan Jones of Kansas City in Korea and elsewhere. Jones is seen in the cockpit of a plane, with a Korean woman, and wearing his dog tags on a beach. Some of the photos bear captions such as “Me and Reggie (Dig those big baggy fatigues on me)”, “Me and some of the fellows at Chinhae Korea 1953,” and “The Snipes of P.C. 1170 at Midway Island 1952.”
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
292
(military–korean war.)
Photo album of African American troops in Korea.
[Korea], 1952 and undated
73 photographs inserted by corner mounts onto 22 album leaves. Oblong 4to, string-bound black lacquer boards, front board painted with a Korean scene; condition generally strong, no captions.
This album depicts scenes of camp life, with mostly Black soldiers. 4 photographs depict Korean women. Although there are no captions or clues to the compiler, one photo shows Seoul City Hospital in the background, and at least two are stamped October 1952.
Estimate
$300 – $400
293
(military.)
Album of paratrooper R.D. Dykes in training in Okinawa.
Okinawa, Japan, and vp, circa 1963-65
50 items laid down on 10 leaves of a photo binder. 4to, 11 x 9 inches, spiral-bound, with original pictorial front board featuring a map of Okinawa, annotated with locations of military bases; minor wear.
These photographs document the new 173rd Airborne Brigade, a paratrooper unit known as the Sky Soldiers. They began training in Okinawa in May 1963. In May 1965, they became the Army’s first full unit to deploy in Vietnam. This album was kept by Private R.D. Dykes, and includes a clipping about the Sky Soldiers, 8 snapshots from the home front (including baby pictures dated 1964), 7 snapshots of Dykes and his soldier friends, a page with Dykes’s portrait, name tag and insignia, 27 professional photographs of the Sky Soldiers in training (one captioned Yomitan, their base in Okinawa), and finally a color portrait on fabric of the same infant shown on the second page. Many of the training photographs depict the Sky Soldiers in the air, including one marked “Dykes” depicting the private about to touch ground.
Estimate
$600 – $900
294
(military.)
Photographs from a soldier stationed in South Korea, including shots of Muhammad Ali and President Carter.
[South Korea], circa 1976-1979
19 color photographs, most 3¼ x 4½ inches, a couple smaller; most with minimal wear.
Two celebrities show up in these snapshots. One shows United States President Jimmy Carter exiting a compound on a diplomatic visit, probably during his trip to South Korea on 29 June - 1 July 1979. Even bigger than the President at that point in history was boxer Muhammad Ali, who visited the troops in South Korea for an exhibition performance on 27 June 1976. He is here seen sparring with Private First Class Larry D. Price in a makeshift hillside ring.
The other 17 photographs are less dramatic, but most show an Army soldier named Johnson (his nametag is visible in one shot) relaxing with friends; two show baseball practices and two others show locals drinking in a bar.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Music
295
Slave Songs of the South, by the Hampton Colored Students.
New York: E. Wells Sackett, 3 March 1875
4 printed pages, 9½ x 6 inches, on one folding sheet; minor wear including 3 short closed tears, mailing folds.
The Fisk Jubilee Singers were launched in 1871, and proved to be successful fundraisers for their cash-strapped university. Soon after, the Hampton Institute followed suit with their own touring group of singers. The first page is a program for the performance listing 14 songs. The center pages are headed by a note explaining that “The Hampton Students were nearly all born in slavery, and their music is a faithful rendering of the songs peculiar to slave life,” over a facsimile manuscript endorsement of the group signed by 26 prominent clergymen. The rear page features a large engraving of the Hampton Institute’s Virginia Hall.
This particular flier advertises a concert at Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights, which had been a focal point of the New York abolitionist movement under its founding pastor Henry Ward Beecher (brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe). Rev. Beecher was still on the scene when this concern was held in 1875, but was in the throes of a tabloid sex scandal. Not only does his facsimile signature grace the centerfold endorsement, his is the first name to appear.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
296
“The Jubilee,” promoting the current touring season of the Jubilee Singers from Fisk University.
Albion, NY: 24 March [1883] (overprinting)
4 pages, 12 x 9¼ inches, on one folding sheet, with local concert information overprinted in red at base of final page; missing a 2-inch chunk from lower inner corner just touching text, otherwise moderate wear.
Includes introductions of the 12 members of the Jubilee Singers and press reports on recent performances. Their audiences had included Presidents Grant, Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur, as well as Queen Elizabeth. The most unusual endorsement comes from ex-Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens, by then a quite frail invalid, who invited the singers to perform in his parlor. No other examples of this 1882-1883 edition traced, though Brown University has the 1879-80 edition.
Estimate
$500 – $750
297
Cabinet card of the South African Kaffir Choir.
Boston, circa 1894?
Albumen photograph, 3¾ x 5½ inches, on mount with photographer’s backmark and manager James Balmer’s inked stamp on verso; minor wear to mount.
The South African Kaffir Choir, composed of singers recruited from Africa and performing in traditional dress, began touring America in 1894 and continued intermittently through at least 1916. This photograph was taken in Boston at Elmer Chickering’s Royal Photographic and Portrait Studio.
Estimate
$300 – $400
298
e. simms campbell, artist.
A Night-Club Map of Harlem, featured in the inaugural issue of “Manhattan:
[New York], 18 January 1933
A Weekly for Wakeful New Yorkers.” 16 pages, 16 x 12 inches, on 4 unbound folding sheets, with the map appearing as pages 8 and 9 of the 16 x 24-inch centerfold spread; folds, minor wear including outer margins of map, a few short tape repairs.
First printing of the famous map of Harlem, which also appeared in an issue of Esquire several months later. It serves as a guide to the old speakeasies and night-clubs that dotted the Harlem landscape during the Prohibition era, which ended later that year. The Savoy Ballroom, the Cotton Club, Gladys’s Clam House (a gay speakeasy featuring drag artists: “Gladys Bentley wears a tuxedo and high hat and tickles the ivories”), Tillie’s Chicken Shack, and many others are shown, with little vignettes throughout of Harlem characters, such as Jeff Blount of the Radium Club, Snakehips Earl Tucker, the “Reefer Man,” the “Crab Man,” and musicians like Cab Calloway, Don Redman, and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (“The world’s greatest tapdancer”).
The artist Simms Campbell (1906-1971) was best known as an Esquire artist from 1933 until the late 1950s, the first Black illustrator whose work was featured regularly in national periodicals.
Estimate
$15,000 – $25,000
299
Signed early photograph of Duke Ellington.
Chicago, circa 1930s
Silver print, 8x10 inches, by Maurice, inscribed in green ink “To the most charming[?] Corine, loads o luck, Duke”; minor wear including 2-inch crease in upper right corner.
Estimate
$200 – $300
300
Photograph signed by jazz giants Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines.
Np, [1948-49]
Photograph, 8 x 10 inches, signed “Big Sid Catlett” at left, “Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines” at top center, and “To Nelson, Louis Armstrong” just below; signatures somewhat faded, minimal wear, tape remnants on verso, uncaptioned and uncredited.
Earl Hines and Louis Armstrong first collaborated early in their careers circa 1927, but this photograph dates from the period after Hines joined Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars in 1948. Hines is not fully visible in the photo, but is wedged in to Armstrong’s right. Also visible on the small stage are drummer Sid Catlett (who left the group in May 1949), clarinetist Barney Bigard, Jack Teagarden on trombone, and bassist Arvell Shaw. Two other shots from this same gig are held at the Louis Armstrong House Museum.
Estimate
$400 – $600
301
Concert poster for the all-woman band Darlings of Rhythm.
Indianapolis, IN: William C. Powell Agency, 9 August [1946]
Poster, 22 x 14 inches, in card stock in red, blue, and black; moderate wear and soiling.
Poster from a short-lived but important all-female jazz orchestra which toured the United States in the mid-1940s. A month before this performance, the band’s bassist Toby Butler was arrested in Milledgeville, GA for breaking segregation laws, for performing as a white woman in an otherwise all-Black band. Band leader Jessie Turner remarked that “she didn’t see why a few women from Mars would matter as long as the band is a good one” (Birmingham Weekly Review, 13 July 1946).
Estimate
$400 – $600
302
Group of press photographs of gospel legend Mahalia Jackson.
Vp, circa 1950-70 and undated
8 photographs, each about 8 x 10 inches, most original gelatin silver prints; condition generally strong, one with editing marks, various caption labels, pencil notes, and inked stamps on verso.
Jackson can be seen in an Apollo Records promotions image from early in her career (circa 1946-53); with President Eisenhower at his 1959 birthday celebration; with Louis Armstrong offstage at the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1970; on the set of Sesame Street; and on the set of “Rappin’ on the Roof,” 22 December [1970]. One shot of Jackson on the set of a New York radio station (illustrated) was taken circa the late 1950s by Inge Hardison (best known as sculptor of the Negro Giants in History series), with Hardison’s inked stamp on verso.
Estimate
$400 – $600
303
Group of photographs of (mostly) jazz musicians including Basie, Ellington, and Coltrane.
Vp, circa 1960s and 1970s
21 photographs, all about 8 x 10 inches, condition generally strong.
4 offstage photographs of Count Basie and/or sidemen, all by Bronx photographer Buddy Dunk, circa 1980?
Pair of newspaper file photographs of Duke Ellington performing at the Holiday Inn in Meriden, CT, March 1967.
Duke Ellington at the Forum in Harrisburg, PA with local radio show host George “Toby” Young and city councilman Stanley Lawson, [25 January 1971?].
Uncredited print of John Coltrane’s portrait by Bob Thiele used on the cover of “A Love Supreme,” [1965].
Publicity photographs of Count Basie, Milt Jackson, Sam Rivers (with duplicate), Art Blakey, Blue Mitchell, Rufus Harley (“The World’s First Jazz Bagpipe Player”), Melba Moore (2 photos, one of them signed), Horace Silver, Shirley Bassey, Shirley Verrett (signed), and Dakota Staton.
Estimate
$500 – $750
304
Poster for a Nina Simone concert.
Hartford, CT, 3 November [1968]
Poster, 21¾ x 13½ inches, on card stock in orange and black; minimal foxing and wear.
Estimate
$400 – $600
305
kool lance.
Original maquette for the 1982 Cultural Freebee Jam flyer, with the printed flyer.
The Bronx, NY, 25 February 1982
Printed text, adhesive and marker on paper, 12 x 9 inches; minor wear, tipped to modern board; with printed handbill, 8½ x 6½ inches.
Flyer for an impressive lineup to celebrate Black History Month at the Bronx River Center–located at the Bronx River Houses, one of the birthplaces of hip hop and home to the show’s promoter Afrika Bambaataa. “Nubian Productions & Afrika Bambaataa Presents Black History Month Annual Cultural Jam . . . You may never see another line up like this again, not for free anyway!” Among the promised acts are the Cold Crush Brothers, DJ Kool Herc, Jazzy Jay, Grand Wizzard Theodore, and many more. The flyer closes with a reminder: “Remember your Black history giants, Elijah Muhammad, Martin L. King, Malcolm X, Clarence 13X, Black Panthers, Stokley Carmichael, Fredrick Douglas, Marcus Garvey, NAACP, and the great Black history of Africa and the world.”
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
306
Poster for opening night of Run DMC’s Raising Hell tour.
Baltimore: Globe Poster, 21 May [1986]
Poster, 28 x 22 inches, in yellow, pink, and black on white card stock; minor wear.
This concert took place just as these three acts were exploding on the national scene, making hip hop an MTV phenomenon. Run-DMC had been recording and performing since 1983. Their popular third album Raising Hell had been released 6 days earlier. The album’s “Walk this Way” from the album would drop as a single on 4 July and become an enormous rock-rap crossover hit. Opening act Whodini had been recording since 1982 and was at the peak of their popularity. LL Cool J’s first album had just been released the previous November, and on 1 March he had become the first hip hop artist on American Bandstand. He received third billing for the concert. This 21 May 1986 show at the Municipal Auditorium in Columbus, Georgia was the opening night of the legendary tour, here described as the “Raising *ell Tour.”
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
307
Flyer for an early Boogie Down Productions show, with a signed copy of By All Means Necessary.
New York, 1987-88
Two items as described.
Illustrated flyer for “Boogie Down Productions at the Latin Quarter . . . Singing their Smash Hit ‘The Bridge is Over’.” 11 x 8½ inches; several folds, light staining, minor wear. The show took place just 4 days after the release of their debut album Criminal Minded, and six months before the fatal shooting of DJ Scott La Rock (Scott Sterling). New York, 7 March [1987].
“By All Means Necessary,” the second LP by Boogie Down Productions, signed three times on the sleeve by leader KRS-One; minor wear.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
308
Group of 24 hip-hip publicity photos including Chuck D of Public Enemy.
Vp, circa 1985-91
Each about 8½ x 11 inches, generally minimal wear.
Highlights include Chuck D of Public Enemy speaking with prisoners at Riker’s Island, August 1988; Biz Markie in 1991; LL Cool J in 1985 and 1987 (shaking hands with New York mayor Ed Koch), the Pharcyde, and more.
Estimate
$400 – $600
309
Group of flyers by Buddy Esquire, “King of the Hip Hop Flyer”–one of them signed by him.
New York, dated 1979-81 and 1993
4 printed handbills, each 11 x 8½ inches, most signed in type by Buddy Esquire, one with his manuscript signature; minor wear.
Lemoin Thompson III (1958-2014), best known as Buddy Esquire, was a leading producer of hip-hop party flyers during the early era from 1978 to 1981. His design sensibility became a major part of the scene. Offered here are 3 original Buddy Esquire show flyers from 1979 and 1981, plus a 1993 flyer promoting his work:
“Friday Feb 16 marks the return of the 1979 Sweethearts Ball, 3rd Ave. Ballroom, Brothers Disco, DJ Breakout, DJ Baron, The Funky 4 M.C.s.” Bronx, NY, 16 February [1979].
“Man Dip Lite & Mt. Vernon H.S. Presents: A Mini Concert” with Crash Crew, Treacherous 3 and more. Mount Vernon, NY, 9 January 1981.
“Vernon J. Brown presents in concert . . . Treacherous 3, Cold Crush Brothers.” Signed “Buddy Esq.” in marker. Savoy Manor [Bronx], 11 December 1981.
“Back to Attack! Buddy Esquire, the King of the Flyer, Flyers and More!” [New York], 1993.
Provenance: obtained by the consignor from Buddy Esquire.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
310
Group of hip-hop flyers.
New York and Florida, 1978-84
5 printed handbills, each 11 x 8½ inches; minor wear except as noted.
“Disco History Audubon, Sparkle 6 D.J.s Convention,” featuring DJ Theodore (a.k.a. Grand Wizzard Theodore, inventor of scratching), Love Bug Starski, and many more. Audubon Ballroom, Harlem, 8 December [1978?]
[Eddie Ed, designer?] “Red, Spider, Sunshine and Nubian Productions presents the 6th Zulu Nation . . . Tribute to James Brown” featuring Afrika Bambaataa and many more. T-Connection Disco, Bronx, NY, 13 November 1981.
“Concepts Unlimited & W.O.K.B. Presents Planet Rock Show & Dance.” Davis Armory, [Orlando, FL], 11 June 1982.
[Phase 2, designer?] “Mike and Dave’s First Annual Rappers Awards, City Wide at the Empire Roller Rink” featuring Treacherous 3 and the Crash Crew. Cello tape on corners. Empire Roller Rink, [Brooklyn, NY], 12 February 1983.
“1st Class Disco” listing shows from 7 December 7 to 1 January including Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. Bronx, NY, December 1984.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
311
Group of 4 early New York hip hop fliers.
New York, 1980 and 1986
Each about 11 x 8½ inches, folds and minor wear, one with date circled in ink.
“Midnight Fantasy Presents: Stardust Crew at Hispanic Transit Society,” 24 May 1980.
“Tex DJ Hollywood Birthday Jam . . . Bronxdale Houses,” 10 July 1980.
“Amsterdam Jam 1980, place: Amsterdam Projects . . . with the Untouchables,” 12 October 1980.
“Bronx Community Youth Organization presents Green Thumb Talent Show Contest . . . We Will Need Rappers, Dancers, Singers,” 4 June 1986.
Estimate
$400 – $600
312
Group of 3 hip-hop fliers including DJ Quik, Roxanne Shante, and Mannie Fresh.
Vp, 1989-91
Various sizes; condition strong.
“Debo presents DJ Quik with Special Guests Brothers of the Same Mind.” 11 x 8½ inches. For a performance in the year he released his debut record. Seattle, WA, 2 November [1991].
“Roxanne Shante & Silver Bullet . . . at Shenola.” 8¼ x 5¾ inches; horizontal fold. [London], 10 February [1990].
“It’s Buck Jump Time featuring Gregory D, D.J. Manny Fresh . . . and a Few More of New Orleans Deffest Rappers.” 11 x 8½ inches. [New Orleans, LA], 29 April 1989.
Estimate
$600 – $900
313
(periodicals.)
3 issues of The Messenger, an important left-leaning monthly magazine.
New York, September, November and December 1923
Pages 805-824, 852-944. 4to, 12 x 9 inches, original wrappers, moderate wear; moderate foxing and minor wear to contents.
The Messenger was founded by labor leader A. Philip Randolph and writer Chandler Owen, both of them active socialists. It featured a mix of literature, semi-radical political commentary, less-radical business boosterism, and humor, with an emphasis on Black authors. It sometimes used the tag lines “World’s Greatest Negro Monthly” and “New Opinion of the New Negro.” Offered here are a special September Labor Day issue with a “Message to Negro Workers” by white labor leader Samuel Gompers, an exposé on “White Supremacy in Organized labor,” and more. The November issue is a special “Negro Business Achievement Number,” also featuring the first installment of the serialized story “Seven Years for Rachel” by the magazine’s theater critic Theophilus Lewis. The December issue is sardonically titled “Peace on Earth, Good Will to Man,” superimposed over a horrific color depiction of a Klan lynching by artist W.B. Williams. Inside, an article on “Manufacturing Toilet Articles: A Big Negro Business” takes a long look at Madam C.J. Walker’s company (she also took out a full-page ad on the back cover), and a small feature on “Black Supremacy in Baseball” asks two decades too soon “Who are America’s best players? Is there any reason why these Negroes should not play in the big leagues?” The magazine also had a running feature called “These Colored United States,” with in-depth looks at various states; Mississippi, Florida, and Illinois (“Mecca of the Migrant Mob”) are featured in these issues. Despite the magazine’s popularity and importance, we find no issues at auction and none currently listed on ABE.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
314
(periodicals.)
Tops: Recording the Achievements of the Negro Race.
New York: Phame Publishing, 1938?
Numerous illustrations. 48 pages. 4to, 11½ x 8½ inches, original color wrappers, minor wear; minimal wear to contents.
This issue has long features on Marian Anderson, Joe Louis, and Father Divine, and personal pieces authored by Duke Ellington and the magazine’s own consulting editor, NAACP leader Walter White. Among the dozens of smaller blurbs are bits on Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Paul Robeson, Richmond Barthé, Richard Wright, Zora Hurston, and “Nightclub Map of Harlem” cartoonist E. Simms Campbell. Closing the issue is a wider-ranging piece titled “Is There a Negro Society? A Negro Society Girl Writes What She Thinks.”
Billed as “Volume One, Number Two,” but no other issues have been traced. It received a glowing review in the California Eagle of 1 December 1938, but the well-connected society editor could not “for the life of me find anyone who knows when the first number came out.” She concludes that “Every Negro ought to own a copy.” 6 in OCLC (this issue only); none traced at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
315
(periodicals.)
The Competitor.
Pittsburgh, PA, October-November 1920
Volume II, issue 3. Numerous illustrations. Pages [169]-236, 4to, 11 x 8½ inches, original color pictorial wrappers, minor wear and toning, small scribble and address label on front cover; minimal wear to contents.
An upscale monthly for the Black market, issued only from January 1920 to June 1921. The editor was Robert L. Vann, who also published the Pittsburgh Courier. Articles in this issue include “The Negro Workingman at the Westinghouse,” “Development of Negro Business Ventures in Tidewater, Va.,” sections on sports and theater, five short stories, and more. This issue bears the address label of Mrs. J.W. Burden of 1315 Adams Street–apparently Susie M. Burden, wife of John M., who was at that address in Grant, Indiana in the 1920 census. She was a “cateress” and her husband was a teacher. We trace no other examples of The Competitor at auction.
Estimate
$250 – $350
Photography
316
Carte de visite of Massachusetts river pilot Jeremiah Gunderway.
South Weymouth, MA, circa 1870
Albumen photograph, 3½ x 2¼ inches, on original mount with backmark of photographer Charles E. Rogers of South Weymouth, MA; minimal wear. With original album page captioned “Uncle Jerry Gunderway.”
Jeremiah Gunderway (1787-1875) spent his life in and near the Massachusetts coastal town of Scituate, south of Boston. He was a well-known river pilot, steering the town’s distinctive gundalows full of salt hay to farms along the shore. He is discussed at length in Briggs’s 1887 history of the town, “History of Shipbuilding on North River,” page 59, where this portrait is reproduced on the facing page. Among his accomplishments, Gunderway beat alcoholism, going without a drink for the last 40 years of his life, although he replaced that addiction with a raisin habit that sometimes exceeded half a pound a day.
Estimate
$500 – $750
317
pelot & cole, photographers.
Cabinet card of Alexander Kent and his employer Alexander Stephens.
Augusta, GA, 1878
Albumen photograph, 5½ x 3¾ inches, on original mount with printed caption reading “Hon. Alex. H. Stephens at home, Liberty Hall, Crawfordville, Ga.” and photographer’s backmark; minor foxing.
Alexander Kent (circa 1850-1903) was born into slavery, and after emancipation became the longtime personal servant of the former Confederate vice president Alexander Stephens. Kent was often photographed at the side of Stephens and received a bequest of $200 from his estate in 1883. Kent then spent ten years as servant to Georgia governor Joseph E. Brown.
Estimate
$500 – $750
318
[james conway farley.]
Group of 5 cabinet card portraits by the Jefferson Fine Art Gallery.
Richmond, VA, circa 1896-1906
Photographs, each about 5 x 4 inches more or less, on 5 different photographer’s mounts, all marked with the Jefferson Gallery name and 523 Broad Street address on recto; various conditions, 3 with moderate dampstaining and soiling, one with minor soiling, and the other quite clean.
James Conway Farley (1855-after 1910) of Richmond, VA is regarded as “the first prominent Black photographer in the United States” (Encyclopedia of African American Business, page 296). After many years at other studios, he opened his own Jefferson Fine Art Studio in 1895 or 1896. According to the Richmond directories and newspapers, the Jefferson studio was at 523 East Broad Street through 1906. Farley worked at 627 East Broad in 1907 and 1908. He appeared as a photographer in Jersey City, NJ in the 1910 census before disappearing from the historical record.
None of these photographs is fully identified, though one of the portraits has a pencil inscription on verso: “From Annabel to Fannie.” We trace no other examples of Farley’s work at auction.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
319
james van der zee.
Photograph of party activists gathered outside a Harlem Democratic Club.
[New York], 1930
Silver print, 8 x 10 inches, signed by the photographer on verso with his manuscript caption “Martin Healy, Political Club, 1930, Democratic Club” and his inked “G.G.G. Photo Studio” stamp; moderate wear including tack holes and adhesion in lower margin, later sticker on verso.
Approximately 30 men and women, most of them Black, are gathered on the sidewalk in front of the Harry C. Perry Association, the Democratic Party club which ran the state’s 19th Assembly District in the 1930s. The photograph was taken at 275 Lenox Avenue in Harlem, now Malcolm X Boulevard. The building now houses the Harlem Business Alliance.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
320
james van der zee.
Pair of portraits.
[New York], 1926 and 1949
Each 10 x 8 inches, signed and dated in the negative, the earlier portrait worn and the later one with minimal wear.
“Professor Jackson, St. Mark’s Church”, silver print, 10 x 8 inches, 1926, captioned in pencil on verso; taped into mat on top edge, 3-inch crease in lower left corner, 1-inch tear along left edge and other wear at edges, presents well in mat. This photograph was taken the year St. Mark’s United Methodist Church moved into its present location on Edgecombe Avenue in Harlem.
Portrait of a woman, sepia gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 inches, 1949, numbered 5242 in pencil on verso; minimal wear; from the collection of art dealer Ileana Sonnabend (1914-2007), via Millea auction, 16 November 2018.
Estimate
$600 – $900
321
austin hansen.
Group of portraits and photographs of church events.
[New York], circa 1950s-1980s
10 photographs, most 8 x 10 inches but two being smaller, each with photographer’s stamp on verso; one with 3-inch repaired tear, another with moderate dampstaining, the remainder with minor wear.
These photographs were all taken by Austin Hansen (1911-1996), dean of Harlem photographers, whose work gained critical recognition toward the end of his life with a touring exhibition. Each bears a Hansen inked stamp on verso. 3 of them are addressed “232 West 135th Street, New York 30” before the 1963 introduction of ZIP codes; 3 have the same address with a 10030 ZIP code (one of them dated 1984); and the remaining 4 are addressed “1974 Belmont Avenue, Bronx, N.Y. 10457.” These last 4 are all group portraits taken in the same room, apparently a church basement. One photograph is identified in the negative, showing the confirmation class at the renowned St. Philip’s Episcopal Church on 26 February 1984.
Estimate
$500 – $750
322
roland l. freeman.
The Mule Train of the Poor People’s Campaign as it crosses into Alabama.
Lowndes County, MS, image June 1968, printed circa 1990
Silver print, 8 x 10 inches; photographer’s recent signature on verso.
Baltimore native Roland L. Freeman (born 1936) began his career as a photographer during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, and has continued documenting Black folkways through a variety of projects through the present. Eight books of his work have been published, in addition to countless photo essays and magazine work, and touring exhibitions. He is the founder of the Group for Cultural Documentation. He has been a research fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, was in 1970 the first photographer to be awarded a Young Humanist Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and in 1994 received the Living Legend Award for Distinguished Achievement in Photography from the National Black Arts Festival. In 2007 he received the Beth Lomax Howes Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in recognition of his career of documentary photography and exhibition work. These two lots are, so far as we know, the first of his prints to appear at auction.
On 31 March 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. launched the Poor People’s Campaign with a speech in poverty-stricken Marks, Mississippi. He was assassinated the next week, but the campaign continued in his memory. One of the signature actions was a caravan of mule-drawn wagons travelling from Marks to Washington, evoking the legacy of sharecropping, poverty and institutional racism. Roland Freeman accompanied the Mule Train as a photographer, as documented in his 1998 book, “The Mule Train: A Journey of Hope Remembered.” Here he captures a wagon as it crosses the line from Lowndes County, Mississippi toward the town of Reform, Alabama.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
323
roland l. freeman.
Photograph from his Arabbers of Baltimore series.
Baltimore, MD, image 1986, printed 1990
Silver print, 8 x 10 inches; photographer’s 1990 copyright stamp, signature, and other markings on verso.
Baltimore native Roland L. Freeman (born 1936) began his career as a photographer during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, and has continued documenting Black folkways through a variety of projects through the present. Eight books of his work have been published, in addition to countless photo essays and magazine work, and touring exhibitions. He is the founder of the Group for Cultural Documentation. He has been a research fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, was in 1970 the first photographer to be awarded a Young Humanist Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and in 1994 received the Living Legend Award for Distinguished Achievement in Photography from the National Black Arts Festival. In 2007 he received the Beth Lomax Howes Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in recognition of his career of documentary photography and exhibition work. These two lots are, so far as we know, the first of his prints to appear at auction.
This photograph was shot for Freeman’s 1989 book “The Arabbers of Baltimore,” which documented the disappearing culture of Baltimore’s street vendors selling produce from horse-drawn carts. Freeman had captioned this image “Walter ‘Teeth’ Kelly mending wagons at the Kratz stable, Southwest Baltimore, MD, July 1986.”
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
324
Membership ribbon from the Blaine Invincible Republican Club of Washington.
Washington, DC, circa 1900-09
Ribbon, 13 x 3 inches, composed mostly of silk with attachments including a celluloid “Member” tag at top, a 1-inch round celluloid engraved portrait of Blaine below it, a 1½-inch round celluloid portrait of Perry Carson at center, remnants of a black silk ribbon on verso, and gilt braided fringe at bottom and surrounding the Blaine portrait; silk worn with horizontal separation, mostly stabilized by gilt trim.
The Blaine Invincible Republican Club was chartered in 1876, and was discussed frequently in the Washington press from 1884 through their founder and president Perry Carson’s death in 1909. They remained in existence at least through 1932. The club’s namesake was white republican leader James G. Blaine, who served in Congress from 1863 to 1881, ran unsuccessfully for president in 1884, and was Secretary of State from 1889 to 1892. His portrait is mounted at the top of the badge. Several other Republican clubs across the country (black and white) assumed the Blaine Invincible name, most notably in San Francisco, but the Washington club was the only one to continue under that name long after its namesake’s influence had passed.
At bottom is an uncaptioned portrait of Perry H. “Colonel” Carson (1842-1909), the club’s leader for many years, and a major force in city politics. He represented the city’s Republicans of all races at the national conventions from 1880 to 1900. Large in size as well as influence and personality, he was known as the “Silver-Haired Giant” or “the Tall Black Oak of the Potomac.”
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
325
Group of 4 political club ribbons.
Vp, 1892-1935
4 items, each about 7 x 2 inches, generally minimal wear.
“Delegate, National Negro Democratic Convention, August 1894.”
“Colored Republican Convention, Sept. 8, 1892, Troy, N.Y., J.R.B. Smith.”
Member, Women’s Colored Republican Club, Organized Sept. 27, 1935, Morton, Pa.”
“First Vice Chairman, Colored Sub. Com., Inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, 1913.”
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
326
Press photograph captioned “Hoover Pledges Party Support of Negro Rights.”
Washington, 2 October 1932
Photograph, 7 x 9 inches, with inked Acme Newspictures stamp and printed caption slip on verso; minor wear.
This photograph documents the approximate moment when the bulk of Black voters shifted their allegiance from the Republican Party of Lincoln to the Democratic Party of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Republican Herbert Hoover had won the 1928 election with substantial Black support, but increasingly sought to win white southern support by making it a “lily-white” party. Mired in the Great Depression, he faced a tough re-election campaign in 1932, and his challenger Roosevelt had expressed some support for the early civil rights movement. In this photograph, Hoover has gathered Black supporters on the steps of the White House. Most notable is Roscoe Conklin Simmons, nephew of Booker T. Washington and long-time Republican activist (hand over heart, standing second from the left of Hoover). Hoover assured the crowd that “our party will not abandon or depart from its traditional duty toward the American Negro.” Hoover nonetheless lost the election, due in part to surging Black support for Roosevelt.
Estimate
$400 – $600
327
Representative Shirley Chisholm.
Np, [1972]
Poster, 25 x 18 inches, in black and orange on heavy brown textured paper; 1½-inch repaired closed tear, otherwise minimal wear.
This campaign poster bears a quotation from her 1970 autobiography, “Unbought and Unbossed:” “It is not female egotism to say that the future of mankind may very well be for women to determine. . . . The strength of Christ, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King was a strength of gentleness, understanding, compassion . . . a female strength.” Martin Luther King’s portrait appears behind her. None traced at auction or in OCLC.
Estimate
$400 – $600
328
Vote April 4th, Chisholm for President, Unbossed, for All Americans, Unbought.
Poster, 22½ x 17½ inches, minor dampstaining and wear at edges.
A poster for Chisholm’s 1972 presidential campaign, in which she was the first serious Black candidate to seek a major party’s nomination. This poster lists “M. Briggs, treasurer” of People for Chisholm. Mike Briggs of Madison, WI was listed in other Wisconsin-area contemporary reports as the treasurer of the group, based in Wisconsin’s Second Congressional District.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
329
rodney ward, artist.
Black Political National Convention.
Gary, IN, March 1972
Poster, 17½ x 22½ inches; minimal wear, boldly signed in marker by the artist on verso, 1972.
Poster for the National Black Political Assembly or Gary Convention, in which 10,000 attendees discussed the need for Black independent politics. The artwork features Martin Luther King and the American flag. None in OCLC.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
330
Set of “NAACP–Vote, Be Heard” posters.
Np, circa 1988?
4 posters, 29 x 23 inches, printed in red, two with black printed designs at center and two with photocopied text; each with two holes punched in upper margin for hanging, some with minor foxing or wear.
The additional messages at center feature a quote and portrait of Martin Luther King; portraits of King and NAACP director Benjamin Hooks and captioned “Dr. Benjamin Hooks reminds us that people died for our right to vote”; a photocopied “Invest in her future” flyer; and a photocopied flyer which begins “You want better schools? Vote for them!” “Vote–Be Heard” was a slogan promoted by the NAACP across the country from March to May 1988, an interesting moment in Black political history when Jesse Jackson was winning several Democratic primaries and finishing a strong second to Mike Dukakis in the race for the presidential nomination. With–a similar poster, “Invest in Her Future . . . Register and Vote,” 23 x 17½ inches, apparently from the same campaign, with string through its punch holes. Baltimore, MD: Voter Education Department, [1988?]
Estimate
$400 – $600
Reconstruction
331
Military circular urging the Colored Troops to deposit money in the doomed Freedman’s Bank.
“In the field,” Texas, 18 January 1866
One page, 8¼ x 5 inches, signed in type by D.D. Wheeler; folds, minimal wear.
This order offers a formal endorsement of the ill-fated Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company. The Adjutant General of the Bureau of Colored Troops, C.W. Foster, had issued the original order back on 26 June 1865: “Officers of Colored Troops, beyond doubt, promote the interests of their Commands by explaining to them the advantages of depositing . . . such portions of their pay as may not be needed for current daily expenses.” This present order was issued at the command of Major General Godfrey Weitzel in command of the 25th Army Corps in Texas, in which his own officers are “cordially recommended to aid the Company in carrying out its work.”
The bank went bankrupt in 1874, wiping out the hard-earned savings of tens of thousands of freedmen.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
332
Group of 5 reports on schools for freedmen.
Vp, 1864-69
5 volumes. 8vo, all but one with original printed wrappers, most somewhat chipped; various moderate wear, moderate dampstaining, unobtrusive library markings.
“Second Annual Report of the New England Freedmen’s Aid Society Educational Commission.” Boston, 1864. “First [Third, Fourth, and Eighth] Semi-Annual Report of Schools for Freedmen,” each compiled by J.W. Alvord for the Bureau of Refugees, Freemen, and Abandoned Lands, for January 1866 (later 1868 printing), January 1867, July 1867, and July 1869. Washington, 1867-69.
Estimate
$400 – $600
333
Letters by a Union occupation soldier, one describing the infamous New Orleans Massacre of 1866.
New Orleans, LA, 1866-68
5 Autograph Letters Signed by John Stagenwalt of the 1st United States Infantry to father-in-law John Sheaffer of Bareville, Leacock Township, PA; moderate wear and dampstaining. With 6 stamped envelopes bearing New Orleans postmarks.
On 30 July 1866, a constitutional convention was held in New Orleans, which was considering establishing voting rights for the state’s Black citizens. A mob composed mainly of ex-Confederate soldiers descended on Black marchers and killed approximately 50 of them. The massacre was a national scandal and helped establish firmer Reconstruction policies throughout the south. These letters were written by a young white soldier serving in the Union occupation. On the day of the massacre, Stagenwalt writes “There is an ellection in New Orleans today. There is a great ecsitement prevails throughout camp about the result of the ellection.” He elaborates in another letter on 21 August: “I have just returned to Jackson Barricks from the city of New Orleans. . . . Our regiment was there 2 weeks on the account of the late riot which took place in that city. . . . The Negros wanted to vote and the white citizens of that place would not let them, and thus commenced the riot. They fought very hard. Our regiment was ordered to disperse the rioters, of which we done at the point of the bayonet. There was 100 Negroes killed, 150 taken into custody, 90 white citizens killed, almost the same number wounded.”
Estimate
$400 – $600
334
jerome nelson wilson; photographer.
Stereoview of “First Colored Vote, Savannah, Nov. 3, 1868.”
Savannah, GA, 3 November 1868
Pair of albumen photographs, 3 x 3 inches, on original mount, 3¼ x 6½ inches, with photographer’s small backmark, and manuscript captions on recto and verso; minimal wear and soiling.
The 1868 presidential election was the first in which the freed slaves of the South were able to participate. The continued Union troop presence through much of the south ensured a strong Black vote and resulted in numerous pioneering elected officials, although the Ku Klux Klan managed to suppress the vote in Georgia–one of the few Southern states where Republican war hero Ulysses S. Grant did not win a majority.
This photograph shows a crowd of Savannah voters lined up around an enormous banner for the Grant ticket. It is a well-known photograph, but the Library of Congress copy identifies it only as “Election scene.” This example bears a contemporary caption reading “first colored vote,” and places the date on Election Day, which adds to its significance. Many of the massed voters in the far distance do appear to be Black. At least one of the dozen-plus men perched on fence posts in the foreground appears to be white. Perhaps they were Klan “election observers,” or perhaps they were just enjoying a sunny fall afternoon.
Estimate
$600 – $900
335
james c. beard; artist.
The Fifteenth Amendment, Celebrated May 19th 1870.
New York: Thomas Kelly, 1870
Hand-colored lithograph, 21 x 27 inches to sight; 1-inch closed tear on top edge, otherwise minimal wear and toning visible; not examined out of modern frame with acid-free board.
The central image depicts a Black zouave regiment on parade. It is surrounded by portraits of key figures from the recent struggle, including (at top center) Martin Delany, Frederick Douglass, and Hiram Revels, as well as Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, and Ulysses Grant. The portraits are interspersed with 11 vignettes with captions like “We till our own fields” and “the ballot box is open to us.” Reilly, American Political Prints 1870-4.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,500
336
wesley lewis.
Letter discussing Klan raids in central North Carolina.
[Chatham County, NC], 11 April 1870
Autograph Letter Signed from Wesley Lewis (as “H.W. Lewis”), wife Mary, and children Martin and Mary, to Wesley’s brother John Jackson Lewis (1818-1891) of Indiana. 2 pages, 14½ x 6¼ inches, on one sheet; toning, folds, minor wear. With original privately delivered envelope (no postal markings).
This letter was apparently written by white farmer Wesley Lewis (1817-1880) of Chatham County, NC to his brother Jackson who had moved west. Amid a general discussion of hard times, he writes “This yare the Kew Clocks is rading here yet, but not so bad as tha wer. The Govner has give N.A. Ramsy the power of the conty to coll out the molishey at any time. He is making spechise all over the conty to try to put them down. . . . Bad times her, peple her has got to disguse ther selvs & robin the peple. Here tha take ther money & ther bacon or anything tha can get.” 1870 was the beginning of organized resistance to the first iteration of the Ku Klux Klan. In North Carolina, N.A. Ramsay of Chatham County, NC was a well-respected Democrat appointed by the Republican governor W.W. Holden to traverse Chatham County in central North Carolina, speaking out for the rule of law.
Estimate
$300 – $400
"TROUBLE IN REFERENCE TO THE ADMISSION OF NEGROES INTO THE COLLEGE"
337
joseph e. brown.
Letter describing his efforts to keep the University of Georgia segregated.
Np, circa 1873
Autograph Letter Signed to Colonel William Letcher Mitchell of Athens, GA. 2 pages, 9¾ x 7½ inches; folds, integral blank removed; inked stamp reading “Collection of J.A. Riley” on second page.
In 1872, the strictly segregated University of Georgia began receiving an annual $8,000 in funds as a land grant university. These were federal funds but distributed by the state legislature. The state was still under Reconstruction, so the Black community had the leverage to push for a fairer solution. The problem fell into the lap of Joseph E. Brown (1821-1894), who had served as governor of Georgia throughout the Civil War and had two Senate terms in his future, but was then out of office; he was also a long-time trustee of the University of Georgia. Brown quickly determined that the only politically feasible way to keep the universities segregated was to share some of that money by “giving them a separate institution of their own.” Here is his remarkable letter in full:
“Private note. Dear Col.: I see the prospect of trouble in reference to the admission of negroes into the college. They are determined to claim admition and if it is denied, they will all take position against the payment of the annual sum of $8,000. I am doing all I can to ward off the blow, as I am quite sure it is a serious matter. I see but one chance to get rid of the difficulty, and that is to give them a separate institution of their own, and give them an annual appropriation also. This will be opposed by some of our people, but it is that or worse, in my opinion. Among others, this is one reason why I cannot attend the meeting of the Board. I am giving some attention to the matter to keep down any bad [?] in the subject that may break up the college. If the present legislature should couple the appropriation with a condition that colored students be admitted, I see at once the trouble that would follow. Our southern youth will not patronize the college if they are admitted, and it w’d be very difficult to keep the college in a prosperous condition without the annual appropriation. With assurances that I shall at all times do all I can for the college, and with kindest regards to your family, I am as ever your friend.”
In 1874, the Georgia legislature began an annual $8,000 appropriation to the all-Black Atlanta University to start their own land grant program, exactly as Brown had proposed.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
338
amanda c. ewell.
Letter describing a church meeting interrupted by rumors that “the negroes were coming in force.”
Dyer, TN, 3 [September] [1874]
Autograph Letter Signed as “A.C.E.” to mother Julia Franklin Williams of Belfast, TN. 2 pages, 7 x 8 inches, on one torn half sheet of paper; folds, minimal foxing. With pre-stamped envelope with Dyer, TN hand-cancel.
While describing the religious revival meetings near her home in western Tennessee, the author writes: “The [religious] meeting at Dyer was absolutely broke up. Major Davidson came in, walked into the pulpit, took hold of the preacher’s arm, said Trenton had dispatched to them for all the help they could get immediately. The negroes were coming in force against them. Everybody was on their feet instantly and great excitement prevailed. The country were all roused in a little time.” Trenton was about 5 miles south of Dyer in western Tennessee.
This letter almost certainly relates to a mass arrest and lynching of 16 Black men in Gibson County, TN, as described in the long and perhaps semi-objective account in the Nashville Tennessean of 27 August 1874. The incident began on Saturday, 22 August in a dispute over fifty cents between a white and Black man in Picketsville. Two young white men were then shot at while riding through the woods. Rumors spread that “the negroes were organizing armed companies” and that “President Grant would back the negroes in whatever course they took against the whites. . . . Their object in organizing thoroughly was to shoot KuKlux.” A white posse was summoned to arrest 16 alleged ringleaders of this plot on 25 August, and they were placed in jail at the county seat in Trenton, KY. At 1 a.m. that morning, a crowd of about a hundred masked men rode into town, “compelled the Sheriff to surrender the keys,” and took the 16 prisoners, who were then killed in various horrible ways. The newspaper reported that “the wildest excitement existed throughout the country, owing to rumors of negroes marching in strong force for Picketsville, and rumors of their having murdered two white women. On the other hand, the negroes were terribly alarmed, and many fled to the woods, fearing the fate of those taken from the Trenton jail.” The mob being recruited at the Dyer church meeting was probably not the arresting posse of 25 August or the lynch mob formed that evening, but rather the defense against the feared vengeful “negroes marching in strong force” the next day.
The author, Amelia Caroline (Williams) Ewell (1831-1914), was married to a well-off farmer in Dyer, TN, about 5 miles north of the county jail in Trenton. Her mother and sister Sallie lived more than a hundred miles east in Belfast, TN. The letter is not dated other than “Tuesday the 3rd.” The envelope appears to be postmarked “Sept 4.” 3 September 1874 fell on a Thursday, so the “Tuesday” or “3rd” may be in error. However, the people mentioned in this letter are very consistent with an 1874 date. A dentist named McLiskey is mentioned. James McLeskey was a dentist in Dyer born in 1842 who died very young in 1876. Among the family members noted, “Johnnie is preparing to start to Knoxville Monday to school.” The author’s second child John was born in 1856, so the early 1870s would seem plausible for him to go off to school on the other side of the state. “Virge” is suffering from toothaches and is advised to have them taken out; “she seems to be taking great interest in the baby.” This would be eldest child Sarah Virginia, born 1853, who in 1874 was 21 years old, a young adult capable of making her own medical decisions. Her youngest sibling Roberta had been born in November 1873. Finally, “Rufe seems to be enjoying himself finely. . . . He will take a start to grow if he stays long.” This would be nephew Rufus F. O’Neal (1858-1918), son of the author’s late sister Elizabeth (died 1866); he appears with his grandparents in the 1870 and 1880 censuses.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
339
j. hoover, lithographer.
Heroes of the Colored Race.
Cleveland, OH: George M. Rewell, 1881
Chromolithograph, 21½ x 30 inches; two short closed tears, skillfully conserved and laid down on linen.
One of the most elaborate of the so-called “uplift” posters that were published in the period following the Civil War, this one has a center occupied by three busts: ex-Senator Blanche K. Bruce, Frederick Douglass, and ex-Senator Hiram Revels; in the four corners are four Black United States representatives from the Reconstruction era: Chase Nash, Joseph Rainey, John Lynch and Robert Smalls. Small portraits of presidents Lincoln, Garfield and Grant decorate the patriotic emblem at top center. Surrounding the three central figures are 4 vignettes of African Americans: in the cotton field, “receiving the news of Emancipation,” on the battlefield, and in a classroom. A portrait of John Brown appears just below Douglass at bottom center. 3 copies in OCLC.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,500
340
(religion.)
Certificate of A.M.E. pastoral credentials issued to Florida Reconstruction leader Robert Meachem.
No place, 9 March 1868
Printed certificate, 8½ x 7 inches, completed in manuscript and signed by Bishop Alexander Walker Wayman with the A.M.E.’s embossed stamp; folds, moderate staining, closed separations at folds, short tape repairs on verso.
Robert Meachem (1835-1902) was born into slavery in Quincy, FL and managed to purchase his freedom before the war. He became one of Florida’s most prominent Black leaders during Reconstruction, serving as a state senator, court clerk, school superintendent, and postmaster of Monticello, FL. As this certificate shows, he was also ordained as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1868.
Bishop Alexander Walker Wayman (1821-1895), who signed this document, was an important figure in his own right, and a friend of Frederick Douglass.
Estimate
$600 – $900
341
(religion.)
Carte de visite portrait of Bishop James Augustine Healy.
Boston: N.M. Williams, circa 1870
Albumen photograph, 3½ x 2 inches, on original photographer’s mount; minor wear, middle initial corrected in manuscript.
James Augustine Healy (1830-1900) was born in Georgia to an Irish-born plantation owner and a mixed-race mother who he had acquired as a slave and then married extra-legally. James was sent north for his education, where he passed as white, and entered the priesthood in Boston in 1854. There he served a large and rapidly growing Irish-American population, and became Bishop of Portland, Maine in 1875. Though he did not generally identify as Black during his career, he is today recognized as both the first Black ordained Catholic priest and first Black bishop in the United States, and the Diocese of Boston presents an annual James Augustine Healy Award to “practicing Black Catholics who have shown effective leadership and service in their community.” The publisher of this photograph, Nathaniel M. Williams, advertised in Sadlier’s Catholic Directory for 1876 as a Catholic bookseller and stationer.
Estimate
$400 – $600
342
(religion.)
Dedication program and early photograph from Mount Olivet Baptist Church in Harlem.
New York, 1925 and 1934
Two items, as described.
Mount Olivet Baptist Church was founded in 1878, and moved uptown to the corner of Lenox Avenue and 120th Street in 1925, at the height of the Harlem Renaissance. They remain one of Harlem’s most influential congregations. Offered here are:
“Grand Opening and Dedication Programme of the New Mount Olivet Baptist Church.” Numerous illustrations including reproductions of James Van Der Zee photographs of officers and committees. The schedule is given for 7 weeks of programs celebrating the church’s new home. [32] pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers; moderate wear and dampstaining; original owner’s inked stamps and inscriptions. New York: New York Age Press, October 1925.
Campbell Studios. “First Anniversary of Dr. O. Clay Maxwell, Pastor.” Photograph, 9½ x 13¼ inches, with photographer’s credit and caption in negative; minor wear. The church can boast of remarkable stability over the years; since this photograph was taken 87 years ago, only two pastors have succeeded Rev. Maxwell. New York, 27 November 1934.
Provenance: both items were found among the papers of General Grant Stephens (1870-1944, his given name), a longtime Customs House employee and deacon at Mount Olivet.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
343
(sports–baseball.)
Negro Heroes: True Stories Told in Full Color.
New York: National Urban League, Summer [1948]
Issue #2. 32 color illustrated pages. 4to, original color illustrated wrappers, small chip on top edge; minimal wear to contents.
This early Black comic book features a cover story on Rookie of the Year Jackie Robinson, in addition to other stories on Booker T. Washington, Toussaint Louverture, and more. The advisory committee included Langston Hughes, Ollie Harrington, E. Simms Campbell, Col. Benjamin Davis, Danny Kaye, Louise Jefferson, and Canada Lee.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
344
(sports–boxing.) david mosley, artist.
From Slaveship to Championship . . . George Foreman vs. Muhammad Ali.
Compton, CA: Prothro Lithographic Co., 29 October [1974]
Poster, 37½ x 24¾ inches; folds, minor wear including scrapes in image to Ali’s right, laid down on board; not examined out of frame.
Poster for the closed-circuit screening of one of the great sporting events of the 1970s, pitting the deposed Muhammad Ali against the younger and stronger reigning champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire–known as the “Rumble in the Jungle.” At top, hands join across the ocean from America to Africa, with chains broken. At bottom are promoter Don King and singer Miriam Makeba, who headlined a music festival to hype the fight.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
345
(sports–football.)
Photo of groundbreaking college football captain William Hunlie Craighead in action.
Amherst, MA, [1902]
Unmounted photograph, 4½x 6½ inches, minimal wear, offered with the original scrapbook in which it was found.
William Hunlie Craighead (1877-1940) enrolled in 1901 as one of the first Black students at Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of Massachusetts at Amherst). He made the varsity football team as a freshman, and became the team captain in his senior year in 1905, graduating with the class of 1906. He is thought to be the first or second Black football captain at a primarily white college, according to the university.
This photograph shows Craighead practicing with the Massachusetts team, second from left on the offensive line. The scoreboard in the background records all of the team’s victories from the 1901 season through December, placing the date of this image in 1902.
With–the scrapbook in which this photograph was found, kept by the family of Charles Parker Halligan (1881-1966). Halligan was a white Massachusetts student who played football alongside Craighead through his 1902 graduation, then served as Craighead’s coach for the 1903 season. Most of the album contains photographs of Halligan’s family members, but several images are football-related. Among them is a printed team photograph clipped from the school’s newspaper or yearbook, probably 1903, with Craighead identified by caption in the center.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
346
(sports–golf.)
Trophy presented by the United States Colored Golf Association to pioneer golfer Jack Shippen.
Np: W.B. Manufacturing Company, 7 September 1927
Trophy, 9 inches tall, on 4¼ x 2¾-inch base, in three parts attached by screws (figure of a woman reading “Triumph”, base, and plaque); apparently missing at least one part (a golf club?), base loose, finish worn and in need of polishing.
John Matthew “Jack” Shippen Jr. (1879-1968) was one of the first American professional golfers–and the only Black golfer to compete in the U.S. Open before 1948. Born in Washington, DC, he went north as a boy with his father, who in the 1880s became minister to the Shinnecock Indian Reservation in Southampton, Long Island, NY. There young Jack learned to caddy and golf. When the second U.S. Open was held in Shinnecock Hills in 1896, he was allowed to register (as an Indian), and finished 5th in the tournament. He also finished 5th in 1902. After that, the informal color line shut him out of the professional tournaments, and he made a living as a golf instructor in Washington.
The United States Colored Golf Association was founded in 1925 and persisted as the United Golfers Association until the integration of the Professional Golfers Association in 1961. Shippen was well past his prime when the USCGA was founded, but was still one of its best golfers. Their second tournament was held at the Mapledale Links in Stow, MA on 4 and 5 September 1927. At the age of 47, Shippen placed second in the tournament with a 313 over 4 rounds, winning the $75 second prize. Finishing 11th was his son John Jr. (see the Boston Globe of 6 September 1927).
Offered here is a trophy presented to Shippen for this tournament two days later. The plaque reads “Presented by Betram Barker, U.S.C.G.A., won by Jack Shippen, Sept. 7, 1927.” It is a rare relic of golf’s pre-integration era.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
347
(sports.)
Group of press photographs of Black stars from across the world of sports.
Vp, 1971-82 and undated
9 original prints (not wire photos), various sizes; most with crop marks, minor wear, various markings on verso.
Muhammad Ali, taping his hands, 9 x 7 inches, 1978; Willie Mays at bat, by Bob Langer, 12 x 11 inches, 8 March 1972; Willie Mays at bat, by A.B. Rickerby, 14 x 11 inches, undated; Willie McCovey at bat, by Russ Reed, 13¼ x 10 inches, 1971; Hank Aaron seated with a huge Ed Dwight sculpture of himself, by Terry John, 14 x 10½ inches, 26 July 1982; Funeral of Jesse Owens, by John H. White, 10 x 7 inches, 4 April 1980; Walter Payton slipping past a defender, 8½ x 13¾ inches, 11 December 1978; Julius Erving playing defense, by Bob Langer, 12½ x 10 inches, 18 December 1977; Wilt Chamberlain dunking, by Field Enterprises, 14 x 11 inches, undated.
Estimate
$300 – $400
Women's History
348
(women’s history.) nancy prince.
A Narrative of the Life and Travels of Mrs. Nancy Prince.
Boston, 1853
89 pages. 12mo, publisher’s gilt cloth, minimal wear but front board a bit warped; moderate foxing and minimal wear to contents.
Second edition. Nancy Gardner Prince (1799-1856) was a free Black woman. Writing at the peak of the slave narrative, she had a different and quite unusual story to tell. Raised in poverty in Massachusetts, she and her husband Nero Prince moved to Russia, where he served as a footman in the czar’s court and she ran a boarding house. She later did a missionary stint among the recently emancipated Jamaicans, experiencing close encounters with slavery in Florida and New Orleans on her voyage home. Afro-Americana 8486 (this edition); Blockson 269 (third edition); not in Clark’s Travels in the New South.
Estimate
$600 – $900
349
(women’s history.)
Cabinet card portrait of “Mrs. William Scott, negro lecturer.”
Salisbury, MO: Crowder, circa 1900
Albumen photograph, 5½ x 3¾ inches, on photographer’s mount; minimal wear.
Alice M. (Carpenter) Scott (1855-1903) of Lathrop, MO was born into slavery, and made a career of lecturing and fundraising on behalf of the American Baptist Home Missionary Society. She was profiled at length in the July 1902 issue of the Colored American Magazine, pages 227-232. She became ill and died at the age of 48 after arriving in Detroit for a lecture series. Her Detroit Free Press obituary (10 May 1903) noted that “she has often been compared to Booker T. Washington and was one of the leaders of her race in this country.”
Estimate
$400 – $600
350
(women’s history.)
The Lincoln Settlement, 1915.
[Brooklyn, NY, 1915]
[8] pages. 12mo, 5¾ x 3¼ inches, staple-bound with illustrated self-wrappers, toning to first page; minimal wear.
The Lincoln Settlement was established in 1908 to provide services to poor families in Brooklyn, including a day nursery and kindergarten to support working mothers, plus a variety of classes and clubs for older children. Their building was at 105 Fleet Place between downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene Park. Its founders were Verina Morton-Jones, a Black physician who left her practice in 1914 to provide daily leadership to the Settlement (as discussed here), and Mary White Ovington, a white crusader for racial justice, listed here as the Settlement’s president. Both women were also among the key founders of the NAACP. The Settlement was later absorbed into the New York Urban League. This is the earliest publication of the Lincoln Settlement listed in OCLC, which traces just one copy.
Estimate
$300 – $400
351
(women’s history.) [c.m. battey, photographer]
Portrait of Margaret Murray Washington, the third wife of Booker T. Washington.
[Tuskegee, AL, 1917]
Photograph, 10 x 7 inches; mount remnants on verso, minor wear, lacking a bit of upper corner.
Margaret Murray Washington (circa 1862-1925) met her future husband Booker T. Washington while a student at Fisk University. He hired her for the position of Lady Principal at the Tuskegee Institute, and they were married in 1893. She was an active advocate for women’s rights and civil rights.
Estimate
$300 – $400
352
(women’s history.)
Program for the Joe Louis Service Guild’s “Parade of Movie Stars.”
Chicago, 5 May 1946
Illustrated. [28] pages. 4to, 11 x 8½ inches, printed blue wrappers, minor wear, mount remnants on rear wrapper; minor toning to contents, light vertical fold.
The Joe Louis Service Guild was a women’s club founded in 1942 to support Chicago’s Black servicemen, and became a general civic and charity organization after the war. The great boxer’s on-again, off-again wife Marva Louis was a founding member, though no longer active in the club by 1946; she is featured on page 4. This program was issued for the club’s “Parade of Stars,” which featured members and friends portraying famous film stars in scenes from current films: Ruth Toles as Lena Horne, Lloyd Washington as Charlie Chan, and dozens more. Marva Louis made a very special appearance as Marlene Dietrich. Much of the program is devoted to advertisements for Chicago’s Black-owned businesses. None in OCLC.
Estimate
$500 – $750
353
(women’s history.)
Jack and Jill of America membership directory from 1958, with a group photo from that year’s convention.
Vp, 1958
2 items, condition as described.
Jack and Jill of America is a national organization run by Black mothers which since 1938 has brought social and cultural programs to children. This lot includes:
[Odessa P. Willis]; compiler and editor. National Directory of Jack and Jill of America, Inc., 1957-1958. [4], 200 pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers, front wrapper separating, moderate wear; minimal wear to contents. Consists mostly of a membership directory, arranged by state and chapter. For each member, their address is listed, as well as the names and birth dates of their children, giving this some genealogical interest as well. A poignant entry can be found on page 5, listing member Alpha Robertson of Birmingham, AL and her daughter Carole Rosamund Robertson, born 24 April 1949. 5 years later, Carole was killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing in 1963 while preparing to march for civil rights. To this day, the organization still observes a Carole Robertson Day with projects relating to civil rights. Np, [1958].
Group portrait by Sievers Photo titled “13th Annual National Convention, Jack and Jill of America, Inc.” 10¼ x 18¼ inches; cropped, moderate wear. Depicts more than a hundred women on the steps of a St. Louis courthouse. St. Louis, MO, 27 June 1958.
Estimate
$300 – $400
354
(women’s history.)
Photograph of Alice Dunnigan, the first Black member of the White House press corps, receiving an award.
[Washington], [19 June] 1959
Photograph, 8 x 10 inches, with manuscript inscription (believed to be in Dunnigan’s hand) and inked photographer’s stamp on verso; mount residue and slight caption loss on verso, minor wear.
Alice Allison Dunnigan (1906-1983) had a long career as a journalist, most notably becoming the first Black member of the White House press corps in 1948, and spending 1947 to 1961 as head of the Washington bureau of the Associated Negro Press. In 1961, she was appointed by John F. Kennedy to the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity.
The caption on this photograph reads “Alice A. Dunnigan received ‘Honneur of Merite’ chevalier from President of Haiti for ‘honest and unbias reporting of the conditions in that cou]ntry.’ Award presented by Ambassador [Fern] Baguidy of OAS (1959).” Dunnigan had visited Haiti that February and written a flattering column about President François “Papa Doc” Duvalier on 14 February 1959. This award presentation was covered in the Pittsburgh Courier of 20 June 1959.
The photographer was Maurice Sorrell of Washington, a groundbreaker in his own right–he was the first Black member of the White House Photographers Association.
Estimate
$500 – $750
355
(women’s history.)
“I knew that if the people stood together we would win”–Joanne Little.
Np, circa 1975
Poster, 19¾ x 13 inches, in red and black on gold heavy paper; minor wear including tack holes and mount remnants on verso.
In August 1974, Joan Little was serving a sentence at Beaufort County Jail in North Carolina. A notoriously predatory prison guard attempted to rape her, and she stabbed him to death with an ice pick. Facing the death penalty, her case became a national cause at the intersection of the feminist, racial justice, and prison reform movements. Rosa Parks and the local Black Panther Party chapter were among the thousands who worked in her defense. In August 1975, she became (astoundingly) the first woman in American history to be acquitted of murder in self-defense against sexual assault. We trace no other example of this poster in OCLC or at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
356
(young lords.)
Young Lords Party. Health, Food, Housing, Education.
[New York?], circa 1971
Poster, 28 x 17¾ inches, in purple and black; horizontal fold an inch from top, other minor wear.
Featuring an automatic rifle in the Young Lords Puerto Rican flag logo and four much larger ones below.