Printed & Manuscript African Americana
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Nigel Freeman
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Rick Stattler
Vice President & Director, Books & Manuscripts
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Slavery & Abolition
Bill of lading for a very early shipment of “two negroes” from Jamaica to Boston.
Jamaica, 3 March 1708/9
Partly printed document, 4¾ x 8¼ inches, signed by Jeffrey Bedgood as ship’s master; vertical fold, uncut, minor foxing and wear, unrelated calculation on verso.
By the brigantine Mary under master Jeffrey Bedgood, Thomas Hall shipped “two negroes, one man & one woman” from Bluefields, Jamaica to Boston, agreeing to freight costs of £3 for each. The North American slave trade dates back to 1619, but in 1709 it was still substantially smaller and less organized than it would be even by the mid-1700s. We can find no manuscripts from this period of the North American trade at auction through Swann. Dartmouth College holds a similar bill of lading signed by Bedgood dated 1718. No voyages for any vessels under Captain Bedgood are recorded in the SlaveVoyages database.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself.
Norwich, England, 1794
Frontispiece portrait. xxiv, [2], 360 pages. 12mo, contemporary ¼ calf, worn, boards and frontispiece detached and binding split along backstrip; lacking leaf b2 (subscriber list, pages xxvii-xxviii) and folding plate, minor foxing, lacking rear free endpaper.
“Eighth edition, enlarged” of one of the first published slave narratives. Olaudah Equiano (circa 1745-1797) was enslaved as a child in the Kingdom of Benin (now southeast Nigeria), survived the Middle Passage, was given the name Gustavus Vassa, and spent time in Barbados, Virginia, England, Montserrat, and Georgia before buying his own freedom in 1766. As a free man in England he worked as a seaman and was a first-wave abolitionist. Sabin 98661. </i>
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Case of the Vigilante, a Ship Employed in the Slave-Trade; with Some Reflections on that Traffic.
London: Harvey, Darton, & Co., 1823
Folding plate. 13 pages. 8vo, modern paper-backed boards; minor toning to text leaves, upper two-thirds of plate in tasteful facsimile, with staining and tape repairs at folds to the surviving bottom third.
Th+I7e capture by the British Navy of the notorious French slave ship Vigilante was a reminder that the transatlantic slave trade still flourished, despite the Act of 1807. The Vigilante was found at the mouth of the river Bonny on the coast of West Africa, with 345 enslaved people aboard, in the company of several other slave ships. During the ensuing gun battle, some of the human cargo took the opportunity to jump overboard but were “devoured by the sharks.” The crew of one of the defeated Spanish slave ships tried to detonate the ship’s gunpowder as they departed, which would have killed all of the newly freed passengers. A graphic and disturbing account from the trans-Atlantic slave trade’s long illicit period.
The plate is similar but distinct from the often-circulated “Plan of an African Ship’s Lower Deck” from the slave ship Brookes. It shows a detailed floor plan for the Vigilante, including two levels of tightly packed human cargo, with side views to show how it was barely high enough to sit. Vignettes show the designs for shackles used on the voyage. It was engraved by Hawksworth after a design by Croad.
Afro-Americana 2109; Sabin 99603; not in the Blockson Collection.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
john w. barber, compiler.
A History of the Amistad Captives,
New Haven, CT, 1840
with two related Amistad pamphlets. Folding frontispiece (9¼ x 18½ inches) and numerous text illustrations including a small map. 32 pages. 8vo, original plain wrappers, backstrip worn with evidence of former tape repair; minor foxing and wear.
First edition of this powerfully illustrated contemporary account of the most famous slave ship insurrection in history, published before the case made its way to the Supreme Court. The frontispiece shows the moment of the uprising and the death of the ship’s Spanish captain. The text engravings include profile portraits of the 36 self-liberated captives including their leader Cinque, and also their Mende-speaking translator James Covey, found on the streets of New York by the defense team. Also includes a map of the Mende lands of West Africa, a view of a Mende village, and a cutaway of the hold of a slave ship.
WITH: “The African Captives: Trial of the Prisoners of the Amistad on the Writ of Habeas Corpus.” 47 pages. 8vo, stitched; moderate foxing. New York, 1839.
“Africans Taken in the Amistad. Congressional Document Containing the Correspondence &c in Relation to the Captured Africans.” 48 pages. 8vo, stitched; moderate foxing. New York, 1840.
Afro-Americana 881, 115, 171.
Estimate
$6,000 – $9,000
solomon northup.
Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of . . . a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington.
Auburn, NY, 1853
7 plates. [4], 336 pages including 2 publisher’s ad leaves. Large 12mo, publisher’s cloth, worn; lacking pages 321-322 (the final leaf before the appendix which included the sing “Roaring River”), coming disbound, moderate dampstaining and foxing, moderate wear generally, final leaf detached and worn; early owner’s inscriptions on front pastedown.
First edition, first state from the first print run of four thousand, of the memoir which formed the basis for the award-winning 2013 film.
This powerful narrative was announced as “now in press” in the 15 April 1853 New York Times, and the editor’s preface by David Wilson is dated May 1853. The Buffalo Daily Republic of 6 July 1853 announces that “10,000 copies . . . have been ordered.” The Buffalo Commercial of 14 July 1853 announces that it “has this day issued from the press,” but the very next day the Buffalo Daily Republic announced that “to-day the long looked for issue of the fifth thousand . . . will commence at Derby, Orton & Mulligan’s.” The initial print run of 4,000, such as this, was usually issued with two leaves of publisher’s advertisements inserted between the front pastedown and front free endpaper.
The earliest printings (like this one) also list three publishers in Auburn, Buffalo, and Cincinnati. By 27 August 1853 the publisher reported in the Commercial that “15,000 copies of this thrilling narrative sold in four weeks.” Later printings have been seen headed above the title “Fifth Thousand” (1853) through “Twenty-Ninth Thousand” (1856), with the publishers given in Auburn, Buffalo, and London. See Afro-Americana 7210-7213, and a “Fifth Thousand” copy at the University of North Carolina. See Elizabeth Watts Pope, “Twelve Years a Slave, The Book: Dramatizations, Illustrations, & Editions,” on the American Antiquarian Society blog, 28 February 2014.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Narrative of Andrew Jackson, of Kentucky; Containing . . . Twenty-Six Years of his Life while a Slave.
Syracuse, NY: Liberty Intelligencer Office, 1846 [wrapper dated 1847]
36 pages. 12mo, original printed wrappers, moderate wear and some early ink scribbles; moderate foxing and minor wear to contents; two early names inked on rear wrapper.
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.”
This example has the first-edition text, from the same setting of type as one sold by Swann on 25 March 2021, lot 4, right down to the obvious typographical errors such as “Introutction” at the head of page vi. All known surviving copies are incomplete and lacking wrappers. The present wrapper may have been original to all first editions. It differs from the title page on a few points, crediting Jackson with 25 years as a slave rather than 26, crediting the publisher as Kinney & Marsh of Syracuse, and giving the year as 1847. An expanded 120-page second edition was issued in Syracuse by the Daily and Weekly Star later in 1847.
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 two in OCLC (State Library of Pennsylvania and Newberry Library, both incomplete); a much longer 1847 second edition (“Narrative and Writings”) followed.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
james williams.
Life and Adventures of . . . a Fugitive Slave, with a Full Description of the Underground
San Francisco, CA: Women’s Union Print, 1873
Railroad. [3]-124 pages. 8vo, original purple printed wrappers, moderate wear including chip to upper right corner; title page missing top half, minor wear and foxing.
An early edition, issued without illustrations in the same year as the 108-page first edition, printed by a pioneering cooperative owned and operated by women–and one of the very few slave narratives written and published in California. It is the story of a man who escaped from slavery in Maryland and made his way to the gold fields of California in 1851. He describes rescuing a girl from slavery in Sacramento, fleeing at gunpoint, and then being robbed by a prostitute in Mexico (page 31) before returning to California. Mining, brawls, reflections on racism, and failed business ventures all get coverage. He concludes his narrative with capsule histories of fellow fugitives such as Henry “Box” Brown and the Crafts, a history of the Modoc War, a list of stockholders in the Underground Railroad (page 98), and other curiosities, concluding with an account of the Yellow Jacket Mine fire on 20 September 1873. Cowan 1933, page 687; Howes W456.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Slavery in the United States: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Charles Ball, a Black Man.
Lewistown, PA, 1836
400 pages. 12mo, modern calf; leaves 2:1 and 2:6 bound out of sequence, a few minor repairs, minor foxing; speckled edges.
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
$500 – $750
Autobiography of James L. Smith, Including . . . Reminiscences of Slave Life.
Norwich, CT, 1881
3 plates. xiii, [3], 150 pages. 8vo, publisher’s cloth gilt, minor wear, tastefully rebacked with original backstrip laid down; intermittent foxing and light wear, minimal dampstaining, small modern label on title page.
First edition. James Lindsay Smith (circa 1813-1890) describes his childhood under slavery in Virginia, his 1838 escape, and his life in Norwich, Connecticut as a minister and shoemaker. He did not serve in the Civil War, but devotes a long historical chapter to “Colored Men in the War.” Afro-Americana 9524; Blockson 9202.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Life and Opinions of Julius Melbourn.
Syracuse, 1847
Frontispiece plate of Thomas Jefferson. 239 pages. 8vo, contemporary cloth, worn; foxing; early gift inscription on front free endpaper from a Michigan woman to Sophia Jefferson.
This purports to be the memoir of a formerly enslaved man from North Carolina who escapes to a new life in England. It features a dinner with Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, and other celebrity encounters. It is generally believed to be a work of fiction. See the review in the Liberator of 26 November 1847, and the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. Sabin and some other sources credit the authorship to former congressman Jabez Delano Hammond. Blockson 9645; Howes M487; Sabin 30097.
Estimate
$400 – $600
catharine elbert.
Letter from an enslaved woman to the girl she had helped raise.
St. Mary’s, GA, 2 February 1849
Manuscript letter to Miss Martha Doolittle in Springfield, MA. 3 pages, 10 x 7¾ inches, on one folding sheet, with postmarked address panel on final blank; minimal foxing to second leaf.
“My dear Matty, Your old Moma was delighted & very grateful to get such a nice kind letter from the family she had received so much kindness from & gratified that you should remember her with so much affection as to write to me. I should be very much pleased to be with you for a little while & see how comfortably fixed you are, but that country is too cold for me. I had rather be here where we do not need so much wood & warm clothing & shelter from the cold. It would be bad for my old painful limbs. . . . I miss the many little acts of kindness you children were always doing for me.”
After passing on an armful of local gossip (a Dr. Curtis “drove his whole family out the other night & beat his wife”), Elbert then reports on the family’s pets which were left behind in Georgia: “I have got Sport & he is fat & contented with me & I love him for his Master’s sake. The cat I have not got.” She doubts the quality of northern hired labor: “Your ‘help’ as you call her must look very smart in your nice kitchen with her nice apron & silk shawl, but do not think your victuals are any better cooked than I could do with my crippled foot & crokus apron. Anyhow, they do not love you better than I do & shall ever remember the kindness of you all to me. . . . From your old Moma, Catharine Elbert.”
Elbert’s correspondent is easy enough to trace. Martha Doolittle (1836-1906) was the daughter of Yankee flour merchant Alfred Doolittle. Martha and her siblings through 1848 were all born in Georgia, and then another girl was born in Massachusetts in 1850. The Doolittles are listed in the 1840 census with 3 enslaved people, including one female aged 36-54. This all fits the narrative that Elbert could have served as Martha’s caregiver for much of her childhood, and that Martha might have written to her shortly after moving to the north.
Our letter author Catherine Elbert may be the Catherine sold in 1812 along with her three children to a trustee of Harriet Ann Elbert, as cited in Tara D. Fields, “Human Bondage: The Buying and Selling of Africans in Camden County, Georgia,” page 35. We cannot verify whether she had enough education to write this letter in her own hand.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
dinah browning.
An enslaved woman’s letter to her former master.
Columbia, AR, 2 May 1858
Manuscript letter to John Browning on one page, 9¾ x 7¾ inches; lacking integral blank, minor foxing and wear.
Browning writes from Columbia, a fading Mississippi River town in southeastern Arkansas near the Louisiana and Mississippi lines (it was abandoned to river erosion in the 1870s). The letter is written in a tidy, educated hand, which would be remarkable for an enslaved person–or possibly the letter was written out at her request by her new owner.
The first part of the letter makes a simple request of her former owner John Browning: “My dear master, You will confer a favour on me by handing this letter to Mr. Levi Sykes and his sister Polly, and you will confer a favour on your old servant, Dinah Browning.”
The remainder of the letter is addressed to “Mr. Levi Sikes & Miss Mary Sykes”: “My dear master & mistress, I am now settled, also Daniel who is with me. I like the country very well, but have not had very good health. Neither has Daniel. We are on a cotton plantation in Arks., four miles above Columbia on the Mississippi River & belong to Samuel R. Walker. I would like that Miss Polly would see that Mr. Vincent Browning delivers over the things that I left with him to my son Lemick. You will please write me so soon as you receive this, address to the care of Mr. Samuel R. Walker. . . . Please say how my sister is, & my husband’s brother, also all the balance of my acquaintances. I have had no trouble, only sickness. I have no room to complain of my living at all. Respectfully, Dinah Browning.”
The persons named from her old life can all be found in the 1850 or 1860 census of Russell County, in the western part of Virginia. John Browning (1793-1878) was a fairly well-off planter, as was his son Vincent Browning (1821-1865). Levi Sykes (1807-1860) is listed in 1850 as a white farmer with no real estate; his son was a laborer. He was quite possibly an overseer or farmhand for the Brownings. His sister Polly Sykes (1812-1878) had a modest $1000 of property in the 1860 census. The slave schedules for 1850 note 6 enslaved people in John Browning’s possession, but just one adult–a 24-year-old mulatto woman, quite possibly Dinah. That matches with one of the 11 enslaved people listed for Samuel R. Walker in the 1860 census, a 35-year-old woman. We have been unable to trace Dinah Browning’s life after emancipation.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
octavia v. rogers albert.
The House of Bondage, or Charlotte Brooks and other Slaves.
New York: Hunt & Eaton, 1891
Frontispiece plate. [iii]-xvi, 161 pages as issued. 8vo, publisher’s gilt cloth, minor wear; minimal wear to contents; partial early school library sticker on front pastedown, no other markings.
First edition, second printing. The author Octavia V. Rogers Albert (1853-1889) was born into slavery in Georgia, attended Atlanta University, married a fellow educator, and moved to Houma, Louisiana. There she interviewed several formerly enslaved people about their experiences, and crafted it into this narrative. It was published shortly after her untimely death.
The 1988 Oxford University Press edition of House of Bondage describes it as “experimental in its attempt to blend an interview format with slave narratives, biographical accounts, historical information, and even her own personal commentary . . . an example of the black oral tradition in process. The reader becomes an eye-witness to black culture and history in formation. . . . Albert skillfully moves the dialogue between the black vernacular of the slaves and the standard English of the black middle-class narrator.” Blockson 9535. One other traced at auction (Swann sale, 21 February 2008, lot 16).
Estimate
$6,000 – $9,000
charles paxson, photographer.
Wilson, Branded Slave from New Orleans.
New York: H.N. Bent, [1864]
Albumen carte-de-visite photograph, 3¼ x 2 inches, on original captioned mount with photographer’s backmark, numbered 8 in the series; moderate foxing, slight loss in upper corner of photograph, minor wear to mount.
Wilson Chinn is depicted with instruments of torture used to punish enslaved people, including shackles, a nail-studded paddle, and a brutal spiked collar. This was part of a small series of disturbing images which were produced to raise funds, as stated on verso: “The nett proceeds from the sale of these Photographs will be devoted exclusively to the education of colored people in the Department of the Gulf, now under the command of Maj. Gen. Banks.”
Wilson Chinn was born into slavery in Kentucky circa 1803, and then sold as a young man to a particularly brutal sugar planter near New Orleans. Chinn and many of his compatriots were branded with the owner’s “V.B.M.” initials–some of them including Chinn on their foreheads. After the Union troops arrived, Chinn and several other New Orleans freedmen went north to help publicize the abolitionist cause. A group engraving with biographical information on Chinn appeared in Harper’s Weekly on 30 January 1864.
This is the less well-known image of Chinn wearing this collar; he also posed facing the camera in an image credited to Myron Kimball. We trace only two other examples of the present image in institutions, at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County.
WITH–carte-de-visites 3, 4, and 5 from the same series: “Charley,” “Rebecca, Charlie & Rosa,” and “Oh! How I Love the Old Flag. Rebecca, a Slave Girl from New Orleans,” all depicting light-skinned children freed from slavery, and crediting Paxson as photographer. All are inserted into their original album, with a Christmas 1865 gift inscription.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Archive of the slave-owning Randolph family of Virginia.
Various places, 1796-1882, bulk 1833-1865
Approximately 100 manuscript letters and documents in 5 binders; condition generally strong.
” I don’t think the servants can have meat every day”
David Coupland Randolph (1804-1886) came from an elite Virginia family; his father Isham Randolph (1771-1844) was a first cousin of Thomas Jefferson. A large portion of this archive relates to the family’s enslaved people in Richmond and Buckingham County, VA. David inherited the slaves as the primary heir, but was required to buy out the interest of his sisters. This seems to have left him short of cash, and the enslaved people were often hired out by the month or year, right through the final months of the Confederacy.
The collection contains at least 12 documents relating to enslaved people, including receipts for their sale, hire, or taxation from 1796 to 1860. A 1858 receipt from Sidnum Grady, keeper of Richmond’s Cary Street Jail, takes commission for the sale of “girl Mary Thomas” with deductions for 32 days board, “to having teeth cleaned 50 cents & soap 10 cents.” In addition, a letter to Randolph from his mother in 1846 informs him: “The new overseer has done much for us in regard to the management of our servants. They keep pretty straight.”
The collection also includes 16 letters dated 1864-1865 to David C. Randolph from his nephew Isham Randolph Page (1834-1923), a Confederate surgeon based in Richmond who was helping to manage Randolph’s business in the city. Most of the letters make some reference to Randolph’s enslaved people: getting them hired out, collecting the fees, and tracking their movements as they moved back and forth to the city on the family’s business. Most dramatically, a man named Aleck had been hired out to the Confederate Army. Page reports on 4 September 1864: “Alick came to me today complaining that he has been worked very hard & scarcely fed at all by gov’t agent, to tell me that he was going home. I remonstrated with him at first, but he seemed so bent upon going to you, that I have determined to assist him in so doing. He says he is going if he has to walk, and in that event he would likely be taken up & it might give you some trouble to get him. . . . He says almost all the hands have gone off because they are driven so hard and fed so badly.” On 16 April 1864 Page wrote about the increasing food shortage: “As far as my negroes go, I don’t think the servants can have meat every day while people here & all over the country go without, & our servants will be obliged to take it every day now & none after a short time, or take little now and a little then.” This lack of food was a common theme. A merchant wrote to Randolph in November 1863 to explain: “The reason why middlings and shoulders bring more than hams is that the former are wanted for negroes & working hands, with whom fat is a desideratum.”
Edward Trent Page (1833-1906), brother of D.C. Coupland’s wife Harriet Page Randolph, was a central subject of a detailed family history published in 2002, “A Way Out of No Way,” by Dianne Swann-Wright (copy included). She was a descendant of the family enslaved by the Pages. Her book talks at length of her great-great-grandfather Jerry Wade (1833-1911), apparently the same Jerry Wade who was hired to work on D.C. Coupland’s Buckingham plantation in December 1865, and paid $35 by a receipt in this collection. Edward T. Page also is named in a receipt dated 31 March 1865 (days before the fall of the Confederacy) in which he sells 400 pounds of bacon to Isham Randolph Page. Jerry is apparently also mentioned in a 4 December 1862 letter from William Nelson Page (1803-1883) to David C. Randolph: “I will thank you to do with man Jerry the best you can, just as you would do were he your own, and it will be entirely satisfactory to me.” Two other enslaved men named in the book also appear in the archive, in a promissory note to pay Thomas West $300 “for the hire of two negro slaves named Henry Harris and Sam Johnson,” Richmond, VA, 5 January 1854.
This family archive has considerable interest even beyond the family’s enslaved labor force. Three letters discuss the involvement of father Isham Randolph in the James River & Kanawha Company (a doomed canal project) in 1833 and 1835, one of them from Virginia governor John Floyd (1783-1837). An 1843 stock certificate from the company is included, as well as three illustrated certificates from the Farmers Bank of Virginia, 1854-1855. Several letters evoke the drama of the Confederate home front during the Civil War. David’s sister Judith Randolph Swann (no relation) wrote from Mississippi in 1863 about her fear of the invading Yankees: “Of all humans they are the most detestable. Even the sight of one makes me shudder.” Also included are a pair of inventories of captured supplies compiled by Confederate major Beverly Randolph, 20 July 1863 and undated. Just a month before the fall of Richmond, Isham Randolph Page wrote “The vile Yankees seem to be closing in on Rich’d in all directions where they don’t expect to meet with armed men. . . . I fear from all I hear that Mann [Page] was captured by the Yankees this day. He left here only the day before in fine health & spirits. Carter & Bob were at Early’s Hdqs & they too were also captured. Beverly Randolph (Col. Bev’s son) was shot on the train of cars as it moved off from Greenwood & killed on the spot.”
Additional details on the key documents in this collection are available upon request.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Detailed accounting of a Maryland family’s enslaved people who were “not worth the maintenance.”
[Hagerstown, MD], 1802
Autograph Document in the hand of Nathaniel Rochester, 8 pages (15¼ x 6 inches) on 2 folding sheets; folds, minor wear, a bit of soiling to the final page.
A slave-owner named Thomas Henry Hall (1744-1788) died young in Washington County, MD, leaving behind 5 young children. A trustee apparently managed the plantation, while ownership of some of the enslaved people was divided among the children. In 1802, with those children reaching or approaching adulthood, they started demanding a cash legacy from the estate. It was necessary to deduct the cost of their upbringing–and the expenses of “legacy slaves as were not worth their maintenance”–from the plantation’s profits. Thus the cost of feeding the enslaved people with no economic value was counted in the same columns as feeding the master’s orphan children who had no economic value.
For each of five Hall children, we have a year-by-year accounting from about 1788 to 1802. Each child is assessed a fee each year for “board, washing &c,” clothing, the occasional doctor’s bill, and (when old enough) tuition. They are also charged for slaves who were unable to work. For example, eldest son Thomas Jr. (born 1780) is charged about £5 each year for “maintenance of Sam” until Sam’s disappearance in 1792. Eldest daughter Betsey (born 1781) is charged each year for “Maintenance of Ossen,” with a midwife’s fee added in 1789 (presumably a miscarriage), another midwife’s fee in 1792, and then the arrival of Jade on her rolls through 1796. Daughter Letitia (born 1787) was the owner of Jem & Milley until Jem disappeared in 1793 and Milley “went to Renches” in 1795. Daughter Hannah was charged for her own board only through 30 April 1790, and then for her own burial expenses(!), but continued to be charged for the maintenance of Phillis, Monacy, John, Abram, and Frank at various points, including midwife’s fees and smallpox inoculations. Similarly, youngest daughter Barbara was charged for her own “nursing, funeral expenses in the year 1791” but her infant estate continued to be liable for her enslaved people: Jenny’s doctor bill in 1794, Maria’s maintenance from 1797-1799 ending with a midwife’s fee and her disappearance, followed by the arrival of Eliza in 1800. If we understand this properly, Eliza was born into slavery in 1799 to a mother who died in childbirth, and was owned by the estate of a baby girl who had been dead for eight years. The accounting concludes with “maintenance of such of the common stock of slaves as were not worth their maintenance.” These enslaved people were apparently property of the estate and not given to individual children. This introduces us to Old Lucy, Peter (died in January 1791), William, Ned, Joe, Charles, Bob, Robert, the younger Lucy, and Jim.
The final page includes a brief note explaining this unusual account. It was assembled by order of the Orphan’s Court, and this was a personal copy of the official report. The man tasked with this work was a local land speculator and slave trader from Hagerstown, MD named Colonel Nathaniel Rochester. He later relocated to western New York in 1810, and soon founded the city which bears his name. The handwriting in this account matches that in his slave-trading accounts, as published in the 2009 Rochester History article “‘We Called Her Anna’: Nathaniel Rochester and Slavery in the Genesee Country.”
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Memorandum book tracking many dozens of enslaved people at a Mississippi plantation.
[Near Natchez, MS], 1824-1838
23 manuscript pages. 4to, original ¼ calf, worn with front board and first leaf detached, with original title on front board “Memorandum Book for Estate of Wm. R. Smith, 1825”; minor wear and foxing to contents.
This volume was kept by an unknown manager for the estates of William Rufus Smith (1796-1824) and his father Philander Smith (1765-1824) near Natchez, Mississippi. Green Horse Plantation and Mantua Plantation are named, but they may have held additional properties. The volume is divided into two basic sections. First is a memorandum book in diary form which runs from 22 November 1824 to April 1828, pages 1-8. This is followed by lists of the enslaved people on the estate, begun in 1824 and updated through 1837, on pages 13-17 and 23-32.
The diary portion begins: “Took charge of the plantation belonging to the estate of Wm. R. Smith & Phil’r Smith dec’d. Not pleased with the overseer Mr. Day” (22 November 1824). Day was quickly replaced, and on 15 December, 97 bales of cotton were hauled into town for transport to New Orleans. In 1825 the manager transcribed an old list of 25 enslaved people and their values from 1822, and settled the values of 10 named enslaved people for the estate. In 1826 he notes “gin ready to run 1st September, built by Ashford.” His final narrative entry was in 1828: “Girl named Polly purch’d . . . had a child 20th April.”
The later entries record the enslaved population more systematically–and, unusually for the time, they are arranged by family. The record was drafted in 1825, and updated regularly. One family started with just Spencer aged 37, Big Harriet aged 27, and Amos aged 5. Over the years from 1826 to 1832, 4 more children were added to the family, with their birthdates, with one dying as an infant. Several marriages and re-marriages are recorded. A woman named Fanny aged 55 is listed as “died May 1827, fell in the fire in a fit.” Several others were purchased on behalf of Smith’s minor children and added to the estate in 1828, and the volume concludes with an 8-page “list of Negroes on Mantua Plantation, 1834, belonging to the heirs of W.R. Smith dec’d as divided March 31st 1834.” This final list is updated through a girl born in 1838. More than 200 enslaved people are listed in this section in total, although some of them may be duplicated. At the very least, it is an extremely valuable genealogical resource.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Moseley family register listing the births and parents of 13 enslaved people.
[Kentucky], 1835, listing data from 1759 to 1806
2 manuscript pages, 9¾ x 7¾ inches, plus fragment of integral blank with family docketing; foxing, separations at folds.
This family register lists the births of Thomas Moseley and his wife, and their children, from 1759 to 1806. This is followed by a list “continued for servants.” The names, parents, and birthdates of 14 enslaved people are given: 5 children of Harry born 1790 to 1801, 8 children of Betty born 1789 to 1803 (including twins at the end), and a son born to Daphne in 1801. The Moseleys were in Buckingham County, VA until moving to Montgomery County, KY circa 1797. This manuscript was transcribed by Thomas Moseley Jr. in 1835. Provenance: found laid into a copy of Webster’s Dictionary owned by the family of Patsy Moseley Glover (one of the owner’s daughters listed here), sold by Swann on 30 September 2021, lot 247. </i>
Estimate
$400 – $600
j.d. ray.
Letter by a wealthy planter’s son boasting of his short stint as an abusive overseer.
Newnan, GA, 14 September 1860
Autograph Letter Signed from John David Ray to his brother Lavender Robinson Ray in Chapel Hill, NC. 4 pages, 8¼ x 5 inches, on one folding sheet; mailing folds, minimal wear. With original stamped envelope bearing Newnan postmark.
“I have whiped nearly all of them.”
John David Ray (1841-1911) was the son of a wealthy attorney and planter in Newnan, GA. This letter suggests that he was rarely entrusted with the overseeing of the family slaves, perhaps because he enjoyed it too much. He writes to his brother Lavender Robinson Ray (1842-1916), then off to college, who became a Confederate officer and politician; some of his papers are at the Atlanta History Center.
John apparently made the decision to run off an overseer named Culbreath for raping an enslaved woman (the 1860 census does show an overseer named Francis Culbreath, aged 40, in Newnan): “I am at the plantation now overseeing. I commence picking cotton this week. I have out about 15 bales. . . . I have had several difficultys with the Culbrut men since you left here. One was I cort one of the men serving Ane one night. I ord him to stan or I would shoot him. He would not stan, so I fired at him, but did not hit him, and I snap the other barrel at him. It did not go off. If it had, I would have killed him dead. The Culbrut is hom now and I am glad of it.”
Ray then boasts of his own exploits as an overseer: “All the negroes talk about you. They say you are a great deal better to them than I am. I have whiped nearly all of them sinse I have ben here. I whiped William & Candus about stealing wheat. Randle run away when I cald him up to whip him, but he came back & told me he did rong, an would not do so eney more.”
John closes with a friendly postscript to his brother: “All the Negroes send howdy to you, and said you must keep you prick in your briches. I think it is good advise.”
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
daniel w. holsenbeck.
Pair of letters from a plantation overseer in Confederate Georgia.
Jasper County, GA, 26 January and 18 April 1864
Autograph Letters Signed to plantation owner W.T. Brookes, 4 and 2 pages, 10½ and 7¾ inches high; minor wear.
Daniel W. Holsenbeck (circa 1830-1873) was an overseer in Monticello, Jasper County, in central Georgia. Reporting to the plantation owner, his first letter notes “There is no man in this neighborhood gives theire Negroes more to eat than yours gets. They have as much bread as they want & as many botatoes as they want & a good allounce of meat, peas, turnip greens. . . . It is true som times they are not well clothed but they are some of them so verry bad on theire cloths it is almost impossible to ceep them in clothes.” In the second letter, the overseer expresses hope that he will be exempted from the coming military draft “by having over 15 hands & have been living on your place before 61.”
Estimate
$500 – $750
Colonial deed of three generations of named enslaved persons, as part of a coastal Georgia plantation.
No place, 18 December 1756
Autograph Document Signed by grantor James Germany (with his wax seal) and two witnesses, and by the recorder of deeds on verso. One page, 13 x 16½ inches, plus receipt and docketing on verso; worn with full separation down center fold, other separations and loss slightly affecting text.
James Germany (1718-1786), for the price of £2000, deeds to his sons Robert, William, Samuel, John, Alexander and Joseph “the following Negroes: Jamey, his wife Moll Sara, thair daughter Cloey, and hir three children, hir son called Gloster, hir two daughters one of them called Betsey and the other called Judey, and two Negro boys, one of them called Henery and the other called York,” in addition to a 250-acre tract of land on and near Utchey Island, GA, and some livestock.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Will of a Maryland man dividing 21 named enslaved people between his daughters.
Anne Arundel County, MD, February 1783
Manuscript document, 9½ x 8 inches, unsigned; full separations at folds, seal tear.
Slaveowner William Coale bequeaths land to one son, and divides his 21 enslaved people “and all their increase” between 4 of his daughters.
Estimate
$250 – $350
Deed of an enslaved man to a close associate of George Washington.
[Alexandria, VA], 18 May 1781
Document Signed by Valentine Peers, 8 x 8¼ inches, with docketing on verso; folds, minor foxing.
John Fitzgerald emigrated from Ireland to Alexandria, VA in 1769. He soon established himself as a successful merchant in the partnership of Fitzgerald & Peers, and a friend of George Washington. During the American Revolution, he served as aide-de-camp under Washington from 1776 to 1778, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before leaving the service due to wounds suffered at the Battle of Monmouth. In April 1781, with British forces poised to invade and burn Alexandria, Fitzgerald gathered a small force of local citizens which was able to ward them off.
Fitzgerald was also a slave-owner. This bill of sale is dated during the Revolution, just a month after his victory in Alexandria. His business partner Valentine Peers deeds him “a mulatto man carpenter named Frank and a negro man Charles, as purchased by the partnership of Fitzgerald & Peers” for £120 in Virginia currency.
Fitzgerald later served as a mayor of Alexandria and is considered one of the town’s founding fathers. He died in December 1799, the same month as his famous ex-presidential friend. In 2018, a waterfront park in Alexandria was planned to be named in Fitzgerald’s honor, but the plan was dropped because of his slave-owning past.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Partition of 11 enslaved people in a Kentucky estate, dispersed among 11 different heirs.
Lincoln County, KY, 13 March 1820
Manuscript document, signed by 3 commissioners. 6 pages, 12½ x 7½ inches, on two sheets bound with a straight pin; short separations at folds.
A landowner in Lincoln County, KY named Jacob Spears died circa 1818. This document was drawn up by the commissioners who were appointed to divide up the estate. They list 11 enslaved people in the estate, who are bequeathed to 11 different heirs; values are given for each. They include men named Naro, Shumont, and Jim, a woman named Rachel, girls named Anne and Mariah, and boys named Newman, Lewis, Green, Jerry, and Thompson.
Estimate
$600 – $900
theophilus freeman.
Deed of two enslaved men sold by the infamous slave dealer from Twelve Years a Slave.
New Orleans, LA, 27 November 1838
Notarized manuscript copy signed on the same day by notary public William Young Lewis, with his embossed seal, and then certified a week later by the recorder of St. Helena Parish, Samuel Leonard. 2 pages, 13½ x 8¼ inches, plus integral blank with docketing; separation along top horizontal fold with short tape repairs, other minor wear.
In Solomon Northrup’s famous narrative Twelve Years a Slave (see lot 5) and in the recent film adaptation, Theophilus Freeman (circa 1806-1855) played a central role. In 1841, shortly after Northrup’s capture into slavery in Washington, he was sent down to a New Orleans slave market run by Freeman, who sold him under a false name. Offered here is a notarized copy of another slave deed executed by the same Freeman, dated less than three years earlier.
This document records the sale by Freeman to Merritt Grandison Kemp of St. Helena, LA “the following slaves, to wit: William Rolling, a negro man, aged about twenty years, valued at the sum of one thousand dollars, and Dennis Ward, a negro man, aged about nineteen years, valued at the sum of twelve hundred dollars, both recently imported into this state and lawfully owned by the said vendor.”
It may be impossible to know whether William Rolling and Dennis Ward were legally sold, or if they had been captured as Solomon Northrup had been. Certainly, the statement “both recently imported into this state” is an ominous sign. We have been unable to trace the fates of either men. The purchaser Merritt G. Kemp (1816-1863) was a young man at the time, only 22 years old. He remained in St. Helena until his death in 1863, but did not still own any men of the appropriate age in the 1860 census.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
thomas d. mcdowell.
Letter negotiating the sale of an enslaved man, unwittingly sent into town on an errand.
Elizabethtown, NC, 9 November 1846
Autograph Letter Signed to Gillespie & Robeson of Wilmington, NC. One page, 10 x 8 inches, with address panel and no postal markings on verso; folds, moderate foxing.
Thomas David Smith McDowell (1823-1898) was the eldest son of a wealthy planter father who had died the previous July. As shown in this letter, his first goal was to turn some of that inheritance into ready cash, by selling Harry, an enslaved man who could “do as much work as any negro I ever saw.” What did that hard unpaid labor get Harry? Not a “thank you,” but rather a surprise sale to another owner during a trip into town: “I would rather he would not know that I intend selling him.” In full:
“I started my man Harry in Thos. J. Norman’s raft a few days since, and he will probably be in Wilmington within a day or two. I have come to the conclusion to sell him if I can obtain a reasonable price for him, and wish you to attend to his sale for me. If you can get five hundred dollars, you can take it, nothing less than that sum, and as much more as you can, for I verily believe he is worth considerable more than that amt to any one who has an overseer. I need say nothing respecting his qualities as you are acquainted with him, being sound and healthy and able to do as much work as any negro I ever saw. I would rather he would not know that I intend selling him. If you are unable to obtain my limit, please give him a pass and send him home immediately. P.S., the title is indisputable, being willed to me by my father.”
McDowell, a University of North Carolina graduate, went on to serve many years in the North Carolina legislature, and one term as a Confederate congressman.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Letter investigating a suspicious Alabama slave trader.
[Georgia?], circa 1830s?
Autograph Letter Signed from T.H. Anderson to Henry Anderson. 3 pages, 10 x 8 inches, on one folding sheet; minor wear.
This letter is literally full of more questions than answers. A Georgia slave owner named T.H. Anderson apparently hired one J.M. Askew to help transport a large number of enslaved people to Alabama, and became suspicious that Askew had somehow swindled him. Here he asks a lawyer to investigate the entire transaction thoroughly: “What negrows were purchased with the money that said Askew was to have his wages out of? What negrows did I have on hand when I employed Askew? Name the negrows bought and on hand? . . . Was any negrows brought out to sell on commissions? . . . The boy Tom, where was he purchased? Was he not brought to Alabamia while Askew was in the prison bounds in the town of Covington? . . . Was I to have the liberty to discharg said Askew whenever he spent one dime without my consent? . . . Do you no how many trips Askew made with me, and where did I meet him? The last trip, how many negrows had I on hand when he met me, and where did we meet?”
Then Anderson has the clever idea to ask the enslaved people to testify on the terms of the purchase: “Do you no Ginny and Alfred and Jes state whether thay were sold on commission or bought by me to sell on ac’t Askew?” Here he notes “Sold for Goss & Turner and myself.” He continues: “Do you no the negrows brought out to Alabamia of Bess H. Waren’s? If so, state what terms thay were brought out? . . . . State whether I had other means imployed in the trade than the 2222 dollars? . . . . What is the usial expences on a negrow from Georgia to Alabamia when carryed by privet convayance, and what by public conveyance?”
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
“Sheriff’s Sale” auction handbill for property including “5 negroes,” in Mark Twain’s hometown.
Marion County, MO, 30 October 1841
Partly printed document signed by Deputy Sheriff J.L. Hatt, 5½ x 7½ inches; minimal wear.
The sheriff announces that by a court order “in favor of sundry plaintiffs” he has seized the property of William M. Collins as listed, including “5 negroes, to wit, Henery aged about 21 years, Abram 14 years, Eliot 13 years, Marey 19 years, Sharlot 10 years,” all to be sold “to the highest bidder, for ready money” at Hannibal, Missouri.
Hannibal was a boom town, where a recently completed railroad terminated on the banks of the Mississippi across from Illinois. It later became best known as the hometown of a small boy named Samuel Clemens who moved to town with his father in 1839, and later gained fame as Mark Twain. His experience growing up among the enslaved people of Hannibal informed the character of Jim in Huckleberry Finn.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
john mattingly.
Letter from a slave trader regarding the purchase of a girl.
St. Louis, MO, 12 July 1856
Autograph Letter Signed to C. Goode. one page, 9¾ x 7¾ inches; moderate wear and foxing, folds, lacking integral blank.
John Mattingly was a successful slave dealer who did business in Lexington, KY and St. Louis, MO from at least 1848 onward. The abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson visited St. Louis in 1856 to make an investigation of the slave trade, and mentions Mattingly twice in his account (Thomas Wentworth Higginson: The Story of His Life, pages 183, 187). Mattingly’s advertisement is reproduced in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” page 146.
This letter reads in part: “I will or was to leave for K’y on this day week, tho if you will bring your girl down on next Saturday which is this day week or on Monday week, I will wait for you by you writing me word that you will bring her shure. . . . If you conclude to come next Saturday . . . please let me know it before hand so I may have the money out of the bank to pay you for the girl.”
Estimate
$600 – $900
Slaves! Valuable Cooks, Washers, Ironers, House Servants, Blacksmith and Slater.
[New Orleans, LA], 22 May 1858
Letterpress broadside, 14½ x 9¼ inches; folds, light dampstaining, minor wear, laid down on early linen.
This auction broadside not only lists 13 enslaved people and their ages, but also comments on their skills and abilities. This being New Orleans, many were bilingual, and they possessed a wide range of skills. “Mary, aged 27 years, creole, a superior French and American cook.” “Victorine, negress, aged about 19 years, creole, speaks French and English, Cook, Washer, and Ironer, No. 1 woman, extra likely.” “Peter, negro man, aged 29 years, Confectioner and Pastry cook.” “Ben, aged about 39 years, house servant, carriage Driver and somewhat of a Plasterer.” Some of them are described with enough detail that they might be possibly traced through to freedom, which came to New Orleans just four years later.
The auctioneers N. Vignie and R.W. Long are named, but not the consignors. The preview was held in their offices, and the auction in the rotunda of the St. Louis Hotel, which doubled as one of the city’s main slave markets. The building was on the site of today’s Omni Royal Orleans hotel.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Business card for New Orleans auctioneers Mackey & Day: “Real Estate, Negroes, Horses, Mules, Carriages.”
New Orleans, LA, [early 1861]
Printed card, 1¼ x 2½ inches, on white coated stock; minor foxing and dampstaining, mount remnants on verso.
This firm had offices at 57 Magazine Street and 866 Levee Street. John G. Mackey (1825-1873) and Lemuel Purnell Day (1829-1932) advertised themselves as “Auctioneers, Commission & Forwarding Merchants, will pay strict attention to the purchase and sale of Real Estate, Negroes, Horses, Mules, Carriages, and every description of Merchandise.”
The card is undated. Mackey was a partner in other auction firms from 1859 onward. By 9 February 1861, he was in operation at these two addresses as a sole proprietor, when he advertised in the New Orleans Crescent for the upcoming auction of “Daniel, a likely negro fellow, about 30 years old; a good house servant, coachman, and ostler” and “Abraham, a good whitewasher and plasterer.” The partnership of Mackey & Day began soon after, and advertised from these addresses in the New Orleans Daily Crescent from 28 February to 6 May 1861. The 5 June 1861 issue of the Daily Delta advertised the 57 Magazine location for rent, “lately occupied by Mackey & Day.” Mackey later served as a captain in the Confederate army, while Day served as a lieutenant in the Crescent City Guards militia unit. The arrival of Union troops in May 1862 brought an end to the slave trade in New Orleans. This card was found in a scrapbook kept by a Union soldier during the Civil War.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
Deed of emancipation for a Connecticut woman named Pegge.
Guilford, CT, 16 December 1808
Manuscript document signed twice by Jonathan Fowler and by two justices of the peace. 2 pages, 12¾ x 7½ inches, plus defective integral blank with docketing; worn and stained, full separations at folds.
“Jonathan Fowler . . . shews that he is the owner of a certain Negro slave called Pegge and of the age of 25 years, and that he is disposed to emancipate & make free his s’d slave.” Two justices of the peace add that “on such enquiry & examination do find that the said slave is in good health, and is not of greater age than forty five years, or less age than twenty five years . . . . [and] bin convinced by actual examination of said slave that she is desirous to be made free.” Fowler concludes that he does “by this letter of emancipation emancipate & make free my Negro slave named Pegga . . . & acknowledge that the said Pegga is to all intents free.”
Estimate
$500 – $750
Deed of manumission for a Kentucky man named Peter.
Gallatin County, KY, 10 July 1820
Manuscript document signed by Percival Butler as county clerk, William O. Butler as witness, and others. One page, 12½ x 8 inches, with docketing on verso; loss at intersection of folds.
The heirs of Henry Stafford hereby “have this day emancipated and set free . . . from all future service upon us . . . a certain Negro man by the name of Peter.” The document is signed by two of the heirs, William McDowell and Patrick Dixon. The county clerk Percival Butler (1760-1821) had been an officer in the Revolution at Valley Forge and Yorktown, and had been adjutant-general of the Kentucky Militia. His son William O. Butler (1791-1880) who signed as witness, later served as Major General during the Mexican War. About the emancipated man Peter, we know no more.
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
Certificate of freedom issued in New York.
New York, 23 April 1814
Partly printed document, completed in manuscript and signed twice by alderman Thomas R. Smith. One page, 13¾ x 8 inches, with docketing on verso; worn at edges, partial separations at folds, laminated with mounting hole punched in top margin.
This certificate was issued to Joseph Smith, described as “a black man . . . about the age of twenty five years, and was born at Closter in the State of New Jersey . . . about five feet nine inches, has dark eyes and dark hair.” In this two-part document, Thomas Thompson testifies that he has known Smith for three years, and that during that time Smith “hath been reputed and considered to be free, and hath continually acted as a free man during the said time,” signing with a mark. Below, judge and alderman Thomas R. Smith certifies “I am of the opinion, and do adjudge that the said Joseph Smith is free according to the laws of this State . . . and that he was made free in or before the year 1811.”
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Affidavit that a Maryland woman “was born free and has always passed as such.”
Frederick County, MD, 16 July 1855
Autograph Document Signed by J.M. Hardin as justice of the peace. One page, 5½ x 8 inches, with docketing on verso; folds, splash dampstaining, apparently detached from larger sheet.
Zachariah T. Windsor swears before a justice of the peace that “Eliza Ann Ross, the Negro woman now in my presence is the daughter of Mae Key, a free Negro woman who was manumitted and set free by Cordelia H. Downey by deed of manumission bearing date the 29th day of October A.D. 1832, that the same said Eliza Ann Ross was born free and has always passed as such.”
Estimate
$400 – $600
Newspaper publication of Pennsylvania’s “Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery,”
Philadelphia, 23 December 1779
in an issue of the Pennsylvania Packet or General Advertiser. 4 pages, 16 x 10 inches, on one folding sheet; disbound, minimal dampstaining, uncut.
Filling most of the first page and extending slightly into the second is “An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery” which had been proposed for debate by the state’s General Assembly, in addition to the small distraction of the ongoing Revolution. It passed into law the following March. Its scope was limited: those presently in slavery were to remain so for life. However, all children of slaves born in Pennsylvania going forward were to be considered indentured servants who would be free at age 28; enslaved people imported into the state would be declared free; and slaveowners were required to keep a detailed register to assure compliance. This was the first law ever passed by a democracy which abolished slavery.
The law was not yet in effect. On page 3, we find the kind of advertisement which was all too common in newspapers of this era: “To be sold: a very likely active Negro boy, about fifteen years of age; he has had the small pox and measles, understands talking care of horses, and rides well.”
Estimate
$600 – $900
The Constitution of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.
Philadelphia: Francis Bailey, 1788
29 pages. 8vo, disbound with worn and crudely repaired original plain wrappers present; disbound; contents worn, moderate worming, bookplate removed from verso of title page with resulting loss of two letters; later bookplate and Chester County Historical Society label inside front wrapper.
Enlarged from the first edition of 1787. The organization was founded in 1774 by Anthony Benezet and several prominent Quakers as the first abolitionist organization in what became the United States. It was revived after the Revolution, with Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush among its officers. It later became the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, and remains active today. Evans 21831.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Issue of the magazine American Museum containing an address on slavery by Benjamin Franklin.
[Philadelphia], November 1789
Pages [349]-427 without title page. 8vo, disbound; intermittent foxing.
Franklin’s contribution is headed “An Address to the Public, from the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes, Unlawfully Held in Bondage.” This address considers the challenges faced by those manumitted from slavery, noting that “he is chiefly governed by the passion of fear. He is poor and friendless–perhaps worn out by extreme labour, age and disease. . . . As far as we contribute to promote this emancipation, so far that attention is evidently a serious duty, incumbent on us.” It is signed in type by “B. Franklin, President.” This address is followed by a four-point “Plan for Improving the Condition of the Free Blacks” (pages 383-385). Other highlights include a New York article on “Education of Negro Children.”
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
thomas clarkson.
An Essay on the Impolicy of the African Slave Trade.
London, 1788
[2], iv, 3-134, [1] pages. 8vo, contemporary ½ calf, moderate wear; front hinge starting, tear to inner margin of title page not affecting text, otherwise minimal wear and foxing.
First edition. Clarkson was an important early British abolitionist, noted for his tireless investigative reporting on the trade. This essay is filled with original research, statistics, and anecdotes on the trade, and was a primary source for William Wilberforce’s 1789 famous speech to Parliament. Afro-Americana 2380; not in Blockson.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Address of a Convention of Delegates from the Abolition Society, to the Citizens of the United States.
[New York: W. Durell, 1794]
7 pages. 8vo, disbound; foxing, minor wear.
A rousing early anti-slavery address, promising that “their labours will never cease, while there exists a single slave in the United States.” Evans 26531; Sabin 81755. None traced at auction since 1957.
Estimate
$500 – $750
william wilberforce.
A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
London, 1807
[4], iii, 396 pages including half-title. 8vo, contemporary ½ calf, moderate wear, joints split; stitch holes on inner margin, otherwise minimal wear; private library tags on front pastedown.
The great English abolitionist and Parliament member published this book early in 1807 as a summary of the case for abolition. It was instrumental in the passage of the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in March 1807, which ended slavery in the British Empire. Afro-Americana 11207; Sabin 103953.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Abolitionist handbag in support of the “Negro Woman who sittest pining in captivity.”
[England, circa 1825?]
Silk bag, 9½ x 9 inches, printed in ink on both sides, with silk drawstring at top, and small silk bows at bottom corners; minor wear and light folds.
One side features an engraving of a seated enslaved woman with a baby. The other side features an unattributed quotation from “Hymns in Prose, for Children” by Anna Leticia Barbauld, first published in 1781 and quoted many times by abolitionists through the early 19th century: “Negro Woman who sittest pining in captivity and weepest over thy sick child though no one seeth thee. God seeth thee though no one pitieth thee. God pitieth thee; raise thy voice forlorn and abandoned one; call upon him from amidst thy bonds for assuredly He will hear thee.”
This handbag or reticule is undated, but a small number with similar designs survive in museum collections. One is at the Library of the Religious Society of Friends in England, tracing back to an English owner circa 1820. The Friends’ Intelligencer of 21 March 1903 mentions a similar purse brought back from England in 1825.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Constitution of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society, with an Address to the Public.
Boston: Garrison and Knapp, 1832
16 pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers, minimal wear; moderate foxing.
The founding document of this ground-breaking organization. They demanded the immediate abolition of slavery, in contrast to previous organizations which argued for a more gradual approach or colonization efforts. Arnold Buffum was the founding president, and William Lloyd Garrison was the corresponding secretary. Garrison was also the publisher of the Liberator, and this constitution was published on his press. The final ten pages are devoted to a rousing address by President Buffum: “The slaveholder and the man-stealer are in unlawful possession of the stolen sons and daughters of Africa; they ought, therefore, to immediately set them free” (page 8). Sabin 52655n; not in Blockson or Afro-Americana.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
The Anti-Slavery Record.
New York: R.G. Williams, for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1835
Text illustrations on the first page of most issues. iv, 168 pages. Volume I complete: No. 1-12 plus collective title, index, and appendix. 12mo, publisher’s cloth, minimal wear; moderate foxing; early library markings on front endpapers, perforated library stamps on collective title page and 2 other leaves.
The complete first year of a popular journal established by William Lloyd Garrison. The August through December issues are all stated second editions. John Greenleaf Whittier was involved (see Mott, American Magazines, page 457), and one of his poems appears on page 24. Blockson 9174; Lomazow 321.
Estimate
$400 – $600
benjamin godwin.
Lectures on Slavery . . . with Additions to the American Edition.
Boston, 1836
258 pages. 8vo, contemporary cloth with printed paper spine label, minimal wear; minor foxing, burn in margin of leaf 5:3 without loss of text; early anti-slavery bookplates on front endpapers.
First American edition, expanded from the 1830 London edition, of anti-slavery lectures by an English Baptist minister.
Perhaps even more noteworthy than the book are the wonderful bookplates on the front endpapers. A tag on the front pastedown is from an unnamed abolitionist bookseller in the famed Providence Arcade, built in 1828 as the nation’s first enclosed shopping mall. It advertises “the most valuable Anti-Slavery Books, Pamphlets, Pictures &c. . . . Immense good is done by their circulation in every family, and every cent of profit arising from the sale, goes toward the support and extension of the cause.” Facing it on the front free endpaper is a full-page bookplate from the “Anti-Slavery Library, belonging to the Providence Ladies . . . Anti-Slavery Societies,” giving their 8-point conditions of membership. Pencil notes explain that the book was purchased from bookseller James Cummins for $2000 on the strength of the bookplates.
Afro-Americana 4148; Sabin 27671; Shaw & Shoemaker 37668. One other traced at auction since 1921.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
elizabeth ambrose merrill.
Letter describing the final days and death of abolitionist martyr Elijah Lovejoy.
Alton, IL, 23 October to 8 November 1837
Autograph Letter Signed “E.A.M.” to Miss Anna Burnham of Fort Towson. 4 pages, 9¾ x 7¾ inches, on one folding sheet, with address panel bearing an Alton postmark on the final page; foxing, moderate wear at intersection of folds.
“He wept freely, but stated that it was not for himself those tears were shed.”
In 1837, the abolitionist editor Elijah Parish Lovejoy began publishing the Alton Observer in Alton, Illinois, just across the river from slave-holding Missouri. On 7 November 1837, a pro-slavery mob stormed the warehouse where he printed the newspaper, killed Lovejoy, and threw his press into the river. His martyrdom was a seminal moment in the history of the abolition movement. Most notably, an obscure struggling entrepreneur named John Brown heard the news and announced “Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery!” Offered here is a contemporary first-hand account of the days leading up to Lovejoy’s death, written by a sympathetic visitor to Alton.
The letter’s author Elizabeth Ambrose Merrill (1810-1868) was from New Hampshire, and went west as a missionary to the Choctaws in Eagletown, OK in 1835, accompanying the Rev. Cyrus Byington (who is mentioned at the end of this letter). She wrote to her friend Anna Burnham (1778-1847), a fellow missionary at Fort Towson a few miles west of Eagleton, who had been working with the Choctaws since the 1820s. Both women are listed as assistant missionaries to the Choctaws in the 1840 book “History of American Missions to the Heathen,” page 340.
Merrill wrote this letter in 5 installments over a two-week period. It begins with her account of a trip eastward through Little Rock, AR to the Mississippi River, down to St. Louis, and then reaching Alton on 19 October, where she hopes to teach school. There she boards with J.C. Wood, who would be one of the final defenders of the Lovejoy press.
On 30 October she reports hearing a sermon by the Rev. Edward Beecher, the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and a close friend of Rev. Lovejoy’s: “It was what is termed an abolitionist sermon. . . . I find there is a great excitement in the city. Another press is expected & the anti-abolitionists have expressly declared that they will destroy it, if it costs life.”
The next day she reports “Things seem to be assuming a fearful aspect. Last eve Mr. Beecher was called to preach the sermon he delivered sab[bath] morn again. A mob collected, stones thrown in at the window &c. We know not what the result will be. All abroad seems to be misrule, turmoil & confusion. Wars & rumors of wars. Mr. Woods attended the meeting. Mrs. W. & myself c’ld distinctly hear the confusion.”
In a postscript, Merrill describes the events of the following days: “A public meeting was held last Thursday & Friday for the purpose, if possible, to conciliate & compromise. Both parties met. Mr. Lovejoy made a long & affecting speech. He wept freely, but stated that it was not for himself those tears were shed. He felt a consciousness that he was in the path of duty. The thought of my wife & child, said he, causes my heart to bleed. After the meeting on Tuesday eve., a mob collected at his house before his return & demanded admittance. Mr. L. found his wife in the garret filled with terror.”
On the day of the mob attack, 7 November, Merrill wrote: “The fearful tale is told. Who, oh who, can describe the scene of last night? But I must hasten to give you some idea. Mr. Woods was requested to go to Mr. Gilman’s warehouse, after supper, to assist in keeping the press fr. being destroyed. (It reached here Mon.). He went, & with others prepared to spend the night in the building. About 11, the mob collected around the doors, & demanded admittance. This was refused. Guns were fired by both parties & several wounded. The mob seemed for a time to disperse, but soon returned with a reinforcement & a ladder. They ascended the building, & set fire to the roof. What must have been the feelings of those on the inside at this juncture: the building on fire & the rioters ready to take their life as they left. I cannot describe the whole, suffice it to say that two were killed: Mr. Lovejoy, editor & one of the other party, & 7 wounded. Mr. Gilman gave up his building, requesting them to take the press & extinguish the fire. The press was thrown in the river. Mr. Woods returned a little past 1. You will suppose that Mrs. W. & myself had slept little. The bell was rung after Mr. L. was shot, & we knew that someone was dead. But this is not all. This dreadful spirit still prevails. Today these murderers have been exulting in their success & have uttered fearful threats against every abolitionist in the place. Mr. Graves has been particularly threatened. Oh, what will this come to! Who can tell the feelings of poor Mrs. Lovejoy?”
Merrill added one final addendum the day after the riot, writing crosswise on the first page to add: “As soon as the mob got possession of the press they extinguished the fire. Little damage was done to the building. Yesterday Dr. Bell was heard to say. ‘I c’ld shoot down every abolitionist in town’. Oh, where will it end?”
Printed accounts of Lovejoy’s murder swept across the country in the following months, but we have traced no manuscripts at auction relating to these fateful events, and certainly none with this high level of emotion and detail.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,500
Letter written on stationery, with the famed engraving by Patrick Reason.
New York, 22 October 1836 (on 1835 letterhead)
Autograph Letter Signed from Austin F. Williams to wife Jennette Cowles Williams in Farmington, CT, on printed letterhead “Engraved by P. Reason, a Colored Young man of the City of New York, 1835.” 3 pages, 9¾ x 8 inches, plus address panel on final blank bearing New York postmark; mailing folds, seal tear on final leaf, otherwise minimal wear.
This engraving was produced by Patrick Henry Reason (1816-1892) of New York, an early Black engraver. The image went on to be used frequently by the American Anti-Slavery Society, including in the 1836 book “The Fountain for Every Day in the Year,” and sometimes appeared with the caption “Am I Not a Woman and a Sister.”
This letterhead was used by Austin Franklin Williams (1805-1885), a leading white abolitionist from Farmington, CT who made his home a stop on the Underground Railroad, helped form the defense committee for the Amistad captives in 1839, and then built a house for the freed male captives where they resided until their return to Africa in 1841.
This letter was written before the Amistad case, but Williams was already deeply involved in the abolitionist cause. Around Reason’s engraving, he has written “Remember those that are in bond, as bound with them.” The letter contains mostly family news, and also discusses a legal case which may or may not be abolition-related: “You say the young men had a time of rejoicing. Who were acquitted? I heard by Ch. that 5, but have not seen the names. As for what the lawyers and our F[armingto]n friends! say about my testimony, I care not one straw about it. I am glad, however, that some of the good people saw as I did, but what I did see I know for a certain. One thing I have for my comfort, my conscience is quiet as I wish it to being on that subject.”
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Kneeling “Woman and a Sister” engraving, after Patrick Reason.
No place, circa 1840s
Etching, 3¼ x 2½-inch plate mark on a 7¾ x 5¼-inch sheet; light fold, corner crease in margin; edges uncut.
We have traced no other examples of this rendition, with the faint vegetation in the background. It is closely based on the 1836 engraving by Patrick Henry Reason (1816-1892) of New York, an early Black engraver. Variants were used frequently by the American Anti-Slavery Society, often with the addition of the caption “Am I Not a Woman and a Sister.” This stand-alone example may have been done by Reason or an imitator.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Address of the Irish Unitarian Christian Society to their Brethren in America.
Boston, 1846
7 pages. 12mo, unbound; full vertical fold, long closed tear to final leaf.
Many Unitarians were abolitionists, but not all. The Irish Unitarians had sent a message to their American brethren in 1844, urging them to oppose slavery, and received no response. Here the Irish tried again, in a message printed in Boston for general distribution, urging that “Christianity holds no fellowship with slave-holding.” 5 in OCLC, and none traced at auction; not in Blockson or Afro-Americana.
Estimate
$500 – $750
george w. clark.
The Liberty Minstrel.
New York, 1844
184, [3] pages. 12mo, publisher’s gilt cloth, minimal wear; moderate foxing, a few contemporary pencil marks, minimal wear to contents; early owner inscriptions and bookplate on front endpapers and title page.
First of several editions of a popular abolitionist songbook, with words from many popular poets of the day set to music by the compiler George Washington Clark (1811-1893).
This is the first book publication of James Russell Lowell’s “Rouse Up, New England” (pages 70-72), which is here credited to “a Yankee,” and had appeared in the Boston Courier on 19 March 1844 under the title “A Rallying-Cry for New-England, Against the Annexation of Texas.” See Chamberlain, Bibliography of the First Printings of James Russell Lowell, pages 16-17; and the 2017 “Uncollected Poems of James Russell Lowell,” pages 42-43. Lowell’s previously published “Are Ye Truly Free?” also appears on pages 126-127, credited. Other poets whose work appears here include John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry W. Longfellow, and Lydia Sigourney; two are from Jesse Hutchinson of the famed Hutchinson Family Singers. Two songs are credited to unnamed enslaved people: “Song of the Coffle Gang . . . Words by the Slaves” and “Stolen We Were, Words by a Colored Man.” Afro-Americana 2345; Sabin 13289. We trace none of any edition at auction since another first edition appeared in 1924.
Provenance: original owner George Washington Reynolds (1818-1895), an abolitionist editor and bookseller of Franklin, NY, who signed the title page; sold the following year to Avery T. Northrup (1813-1892) of Otego and Franklin, NY, who inscribed the front free endpaper, and whose trade card as an instructor of phonography (shorthand) is mounted to the front pastedown; given to his wife Almina Northrup in 1889 per inscription on front free endpaper.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
[william lloyd garrison, editor.]
Liberty Bell, by Friends of Freedom.
Boston: Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair, 1844
Frontispiece portrait of Lucretia Mott. [iii]-viii, 232 pages. 12mo, publisher’s gilt pictorial cloth, a bit faded, minimal wear; minimal foxing; inscribed by the editor “For John and Elizabeth S. Preston, from their grateful and admiring friend Wm. Lloyd Garrison, New Ipswich, Jan. 20, 1844.”
Inscribed by Garrison. An annual literary compilation which was published to raise money for the anti-slavery cause from 1839 to 1853. Includes works by James Russell Lowell, Lucretia Mott, William Lloyd Garrison (his essay “No Compromise with Slavery”) and 27 other poems and essays. This copy is inscribed to John Preston (1802-1867), an active abolitionist of New Ipswich, NH who joined the Liberty Party in 1844 and ran as a Free Soil candidate for Congress in 1848; and his wife Elizabeth. Garrison visited New Ipswich for a lecture in January 1844.
Estimate
$500 – $750
william still.
The Underground Rail Road.
Philadelphia, 1872
24 plates including frontispiece portrait, plus text illustrations. 4, [4], 780 pages including 2 leaves of publisher’s prospectus at beginning. Tall thick 8vo, publisher’s gilt cloth, minor wear; light foxing to title and frontispiece, otherwise minimal foxing and wear to contents; two early 20th-century collectors’ bookplates on front endpapers.
First edition of this monumental study, made all the more valuable as it was written by one of the most active conductors on the Railroad, and written shortly after the Civil War and emancipation. Afro-Americana 9865; Blockson One Hundred and One 41 (“generally acknowledged as a classic”); Work, page 338.
Estimate
$600 – $900
george c. hawkins.
Letter noting the regular presence of the Underground Railroad in his small Iowa town.
Denmark, IA, 20 December 1857
Autograph Letter Signed to his brother-in-law, appended to a letter by his wife Mary Elizabeth Hayward Hawkins. Together, 4 pages, 8 x 69 inches, on one folding sheet; mailing folds, a few later pencil notes.
This letter was written from Denmark in the southeastern corner of Iowa, perhaps 25 miles from the Missouri line. The town was an active stop on the underground railroad; its cemetery was recently named to the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom in recognition of the activists buried there. This letter by a Denmark resident acknowledges the regular presence of the fugitives in his town, although he seems to be a hostile witness: “If a nigger comes to this place he gets on to the under ground rail road mighty sudden, and the next thing he knows he is in Canada freezing to death, and I expect that is the only way to abolish slavery in the south: run them into Canada and freeze them to death.”
The letter writer, George Clinton Hawkins (1835-1898), explained his politics earlier in the letter, viewing himself as a rare Buchanan supporter in a sea of abolitionists: “Everybody votes the Republican ticket but me and one other fellow. I went for old Buck and he for Filmere.”
Estimate
$500 – $750
Carte-de-visite portrait of Sojourner Truth: “I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance.”
Michigan, copyright 1864
Albumen photograph, 3¼ x 2 inches, on original printed mount with caption on recto and her copyright imprint on verso; tack hole in upper margin just touching photograph, ½-inch tear in caption area, other minor wear to mount.
Sojourner Truth (circa 1797-1883) escaped from slavery in 1826 and became one of the most influential orators of the abolitionist movement. She produced and copyrighted a series of carte-de-visite portraits in various poses to support her work–and to maintain control over her image. This seems to have been her favorite portrait, as it appears on a variety of different mounts and was used as the basis for the engraved frontispiece of her 1875 autobiography. Grigsby, Enduring Truths: Sojourner’s Shadows and Substance, pages 43, 73-76 and images 52-56 (with slightly different mounts).
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Carte-de-visite portrait of abolitionist Gerrit Smith, one of the “Secret Six” who funded John Brown’s raid.
New York: George G. Rockwood, circa 1870?
Albumen photograph, 3¾ x 2¼ inches, on photographer’s original mount with contemporary pencil caption “G. Smith” and later pencil caption on verso; minimal wear.
WITH–another carte-de-visite portrait, of Free Soil Party founder John Parker Hale of New Hampshire, published by E. Anthony from Brady’s National Portrait Gallery.
Estimate
$300 – $400
Stereoview of the yet-unnamed John Brown’s Fort.
Harper’s Ferry, WV, circa 1865-1870?
Pair of albumen photographs, 3 x 3 inches, on original 3¼ x 7-inch photographer’s mount, stamped “American Views by W.M. Chase,” with the title reading only “Baltimore and Ohio Railroad”; minor wear, mount remnants on verso.
An early image of the armory engine house where John Brown and his men made their final stand. The fort is in its original location, and is shown before “John Brown’s Fort” was painted above the front doors. The photographer was William Moody Chase (1817-1901). Was he being coy by not explaining the significance of this site? Or was it offered just as a view of a random building by the railroad tracks in scenic Harper’s Ferry?
Estimate
$300 – $400
Large period photograph of John Brown’s Fort.
Harper’s Ferry, WV, circa 1885?
Albumen photograph, 7 x 9¼ inches, on photographer’s mount of Russell & Co.; only minor wear and toning.
The final redoubt of John Brown’s rebellion is shown in its early days as a tourist attraction in its original site (it was temporarily moved to Chicago in 1891). “John Brown’s Fort” has been painted across the tops of the front doors. This print (and perhaps the original photograph) was created by Russell & Co. of Baltimore.
Estimate
$400 – $600
john m. batchelder.
Comparison of Products, Population, and Resources of the Free and Slave States.
Boston: Welch, Bigelow, and Company, [circa April] 1861
Lithographed broadside, 21¾ x 14 inches, printed in red, blue, and black; short separations at folds, missing 1½ inches from lower left corner, otherwise minimal wear.
An eye-catching display of 28 bar graphs demonstrating the economic and cultural superiority of the free states over the slave states, for those unmoved by moral arguments against slavery. Expressed in percentage ratios, we see that the slave states had many fewer schools, newspapers, libraries, enrolled militia, wealth (even including slaves), railroads, exports, and even cotton manufacturing capacity. A reference to the “seven seceding states” places the composition after Texas (23 February) and before Virginia (17 April). The number of slaveholders benefitting from the institution is shown to be much smaller than the population of New York City. Afro-Americana 959; Sabin 3908.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Enigmatic small print titled “Black Status. William Tillman, Robert Small, Loyal-Hercules at the Capitol.”
No place, circa 1862?
Illustrated leaflet, 5 x 3 inches, plus integral blank; minor wear and foxing, horizontal folds, added pencil text.
This piece defies proper explanation–but it is rare and intriguing. The woodcut illustration seems to depict a fugitive slave being attacked by dogs. The text reads in full: “Black Status. William Tillman, Robert Small, Loyal-Hercules at the Capitol, taking care of ‘live friends of the ‘Fugitive Law of 1850.’” It seems to date from the time of the Civil War. Tillman and Small had similar stories, both of them being Black men who commandeered Confederate vessels (in 1861 and 1862 respectively), and led them to safety in the North. Tillman fell back into obscurity after his heroics, but Small played an important role in convincing Lincoln to create Black regiments for the war effort, served in the Union Navy, and after the war embarked on a successful career in politics. This piece seems to celebrate his escape from slavery to help defeat the old “friends of the Fugitive Slave Act.”
The added pencil text reads “July 9, 1845/Peter M. Garner/Crayton Loraine/Mordecai Thomas/Jan 10, 1846.” This relates to three Underground Railroad supporters who were arrested on the Ohio shore and extradited to Virginia, where they were charged with aiding slaves to escape. How this connects to the printed caption is unclear, as the case took place 16 years before Robert Small rose to prominence. In short, this piece is apparently unique, and something of a mystery to us. Some smart person out there will have an explanation–and we look forward to hearing it!
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Manumission document issued for informing on his mistress hiding weapons for the Confederacy.
New Orleans, LA, 14 October 1862
Partly printed document signed by J.B. Kinsman as Lieutenant Colonel and judge of the United States Provost Court, with the court’s embossed seal. One page, 14 x 8½ inches, plus integral blank with docketing “Freedom papers, George Washington Walker”; folds, minor wear.
“A conviction was had of Madame Lebaux of New Orleans for keeping and concealing offensive weapons in the Parish of Orleans. . . . It also appears in said case that George Washington Walker, a slave of the said Madame Lebaux gave information which led to the discovery of arms concealed by his mistress or owner. Now therefore, for this act of service and loyalty to the United States . . . said George Washington Walker is by said Court adjudged and decreed to be emancipated, manumitted and free from all claims to Madame Lebaux labor and services forever.” We have traced no other examples of this pre-Emancipation Proclamation manumission form, which was contingent on extraordinary service to the Union cause.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
mcpherson & oliver; photographers.
Carte-de-visite photograph of a contraband camp at Baton Rouge.
Baton Rouge, LA, [1863]
Albumen photograph, 2 x 3½ inches, on original mount with photographer backmark; minor wear.
When the Union army took control of the Baton Rouge area, they turned a girls’ seminary into a camp for formerly enslaved refugees, known as “contrabands”–one of many dozens of such camps established throughout the South. While most able-bodied men were recruited into the army or hired to work on army-controlled plantations, the camps were mostly home to women, children, and elderly men.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
mcpherson & oliver; photographers.
[The Scourged Back.]
Baton Rouge, LA, circa 1863
Albumen photograph, 3½ x 2 inches, on original mount with photographer backmark; minor wear.
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 is on the original photographers’ mount.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
mcpherson & oliver, photographers.
Carte de visite of a pair of contrabands.
[Baton Rouge, LA], circa 1863
Albumen photograph, 3½ x 2¼ inches, on original mount with photographer’s backmark; minor wear and foxing, skillfully repaired ½-inch closed tear.
A little-known image by the photographers of the famed “Scourged Back.” We have traced no other examples.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
george gardner fish, artist.
Allegorical carte-de-visite of Emancipation.
Boston, MA: John Sowle [Soule], 1863
Hand-colored albumen photograph, 3½ x 2¼ inches, on photographer’s mount; minimal wear.
Lady Liberty brandishes the Emancipation Proclamation, while two scantily clad enslaved people wrap her in the American flag. The trope of the kneeling slaves receiving their freedom can also be seen in the designs of the Liberator masthead in the 1840s (with Christ as the liberating figure), and in the oft-criticized 1876 Emancipation Memorial featuring Abraham Lincoln.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Carte-de-visite of the proposed Freedman’s National Monument.
Boston: Frank Rowell, 1866
Albumen photograph, 3½ x 2 inches, on photographer’s mount with artist’s copyright statement; minimal wear.
A photograph by Heywood of the model for a proposed monument to Lincoln and emancipation, created by Harriet G. Hosmer. Lincoln lies in state in a temple guarded by soldiers and angels. It was eventually passed aside for Thomas Ball’s always-controversial Emancipation Memorial.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(slavery & abolition–jamaica.)
Detailed inventory of almost 200 enslaved people on three Jamaica sugar plantations.
Jamaica, June 1832
8 manuscript pages, 13 x 8 inches, on 2 folding sheets; short separations at folds.
An extremely detailed listing of enslaved people owned by the heirs of Jamaica sugar planter James Irving (1713-1775), as divided between three plantations and four of his grandchildren. Irving acquired the Ironshore and Hartfield plantations in 1755, and the Irving Tower plantation in 1759. By 1832, he had been dead for several decades, but his descendants (scattered across the globe) were still enjoying the profits. Here are listed approximately 180 of the enslaved inhabitants of the plantations, with their “old names,” “Christian names,” occupations, “condition,” age, value as of 1831 and 1832, and yards of cloth allotted.
For example, Caesar at the Ironshore plantation was renamed William Green. He was aged 34, a “driver to grass cutter,” and his value had depreciated from £80 to £60 over the past year. The occupations are wide-ranging: “1st gang,” watchman, “exempt having 6 children,” “3rd gang cook,” “cattle boy,” “head boiler,” etc. Most are “able” or “healthy,” or “weakly,” with one “idiot,” one blind, one “venereal,” and several small children “weaning.” Most intriguing is Cassius of the 1st gang, aged 52, who is recorded as “absent during the rebellion & since.” This likely refers to the recent Baptist War or Christmas Rebellion, in which several hundred enslaved people were killed or executed, and many others escaped to freedom in the island’s interior. Within each plantation, the enslaved people are organized by the cousin who had inherited them: Jacob Aemilius Irving (1797-1858) of Ontario, Canada; Lucy Ann Irving (1806-1848) and her mother Susanna; James Irving III (1792-1857); and John Serocold Jackson (1777-1850) of Australia. Each grouping is given an appraisal; as the appraiser signatures are all in the same hand, this must be a contemporary transcript. It offers a vivid portrait of plantation life, rendered even more dramatic by the mention of a man who escaped during the recent revolt.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
(slavery & abolition–trinidad.)
Group of 5 lithographs from “Sketches of West India Scenery with Illustrations of Negro Character.”
London, circa 1836
5 (of 27) hand-colored lithographs, 11 x 14¾ inches; disbound, light mat toning, moderate foxing, one with repaired tear in margin.
These plates come from “Sketches of West India Scenery with Illustrations of Negro Character. The Process of Making Sugar, &c. Taken during a Voyage to, and Seven Years Residence in the Island of Trinidad.” The artist Richard Bridgens was an English architect who moved to Trinidad in 1825 when his wife inherited a sugar plantation. These five prints depict Caribbean sugar planation slavery from life, although from the eye of a slaveholder. Included are:
8. Planting the Sugar Cane; 9. Cutting Canes; 10. Carting Canes to the Mill (showing a boiling house and sugar mill); 11. Interior of a Boiling House; and 12. Carting Sugar / Rose Hill, the Residence of Edward Jackson Esqr.
Abbey Travel 680. No examples of the complete volume have been traced at auction since 2006.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(slavery & abolition–virgin islands.)
A Report of the Trial of Arthur Hodge . . . for the Murder of his Negro Man Slave
Middletown, CT: Tertius Dunning, 1812
Named Prosper, Stenographically Taken by A.M. Belisario. [2], 186 pages. 8vo, original paper-backed boards, backstrip mostly perished, otherwise minor wear; minor foxing and dampstaining; uncut.
First American edition, following an 1811 London edition, of a notorious case of abuse on the British island of Tortola, which contributed to the abolition of slavery in the British colonies. “Hodge, undoubtedly a sadist, had murdered about a hundred of his blacks in particularly brutal ways, as by flaying them alive, pouring boiling water down their throats, and working them to death during the course of a few years. At length charges were brought against him for the murder of a black, Prosper”–Ragatz, page 468. The prosecution relied on testimony from a free black woman, Perreen Georges. Hodge was found guilty and hung the same day. Afro-Americana Supplement 1080; Shaw & Shoemaker 24790.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Africa
(africa.)
Pair of newspapers discussing Paul Cuffe’s colonization efforts in Sierra Leone.
Various places, 1814 and 1816
2 items as described.
Two newspaper articles on the Sierra Leone colonization efforts of sea captain and merchant Paul Cuffe (1759-1817), who was perhaps the leading Black businessman of the young republic.
New-York Evening Post, 12 January 1814, [4] pages, 19½ x 13½ inches; disbound, minimal foxing. Prints his petition to the United States President and Congress on page 3: “Your memorialist being a descendant of Africa . . . to improve the condition of the degraded inhabitants of the land of his ancestors, he conceived it a duty . . . to give up a portion of his time and his property in visiting that country.” He describes what he found in a visit to Sierra Leone and in discussions with British authorities, and requests aid in transporting “such persons and families as may be inclined to go.”
Niles’ Weekly Register, Baltimore, MD, 29 June 1816. Pages [289]-304, 9½ x 6 inches, disbound; foxing, minimal wear. The resolutions of the New York African Society regarding Cuffe’s efforts are printed on pages 296-297. It lists nine families who have been settled in Africa, and resolves that “the intentions of Captain Cuffee in taking those persons on board his vessel, were the most pure, honorable, and benevolent, and that he has done everything in his power to make their emigration advantageous to them.” Appended is their letter of support to Cuffe, pledging to support the reimbursement of his expenses.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(africa.) henry w. johnson.
Letter written as a prominent Black emigrant to Liberia.
Monrovia, Liberia, 5 February 1866
Autograph Letter Signed to the president and board of the New Jersey Colonization Society. 5 pages, 12½ x 7¾ inches, on 2 sheets with brief docketing on final blank; folds, minimal foxing.
Henry W. Johnson, Jr. (circa 1822-1884) of Canandaigua, NY rose in his working life from barber to lawyer. In June 1865, discouraged by his prospects in America, he emigrated to Liberia with the help of the New Jersey Colonization Society. This letter was sent as a report back to his sponsors. “All that has transpired since I left America, and all I have witnessed since my arrival here, have only confirmed me in the belief that Africa is the best home for the oppressed Black men of America! While in America, I was constantly weighed down with the thought that I was constantly in the presence of those who considered me inferior to them, for no other reason than because I wear the dark skin given me by my creator. . . . I have felt as free as the air we breathe, and the ponderous weight of human bondage has rolled off from my soul. My citizenship is acknowledged, my rights respected, my wrongs redressed, and my manhood fully recognized! This is what Liberia will do for every black man. . . . How lamentable it is, that so many thousands of intelligent colored men in America, possessing fine tallents and ample means, will continue to hug their chains, kiss the rod that smites them, finally die in despair . . . when they can obtain all they desire within the limits of the Republic of Liberia!” He also condescendingly describes the pre-colonization inhabitants of Liberia as “ignorant, degraded, superstitious, wild, and hostile tribes of natives” who have since been improved by “the seeds of a Christian civilization.”
The bulk of this letter was published under the title “Views of an Intelligent Emigrant” in the journal African Repository, May 1866, pages 149-152. Two substantial passages from the letter were left out from the published version, though–both of them being passages which reflected poorly on the situation in Liberia: “Upon our arrival, we found the people suffering some inconvenience from a scarcity of provisions caused by an interruption of trade, in consequence of the Annunciation. The arrival of the Thomas Pope was very opportune, and Capt. Alexander was hailed as a great deliverer!” Also left out of the published account was a postscript: “My family and myself are still under the influence of a fever. Therefore I have seen but little, and can say no more at present. In my next, I will speak of the government and people, and . . . endeavor to give such information as will be interesting, useful and instructive to the American people.” Certainly, the editors did not want to create an impression that emigrants would be greeted by starvation and disease. Also notable is a one-word change which may be incidental, or may be somewhat disturbing. Johnson signed this original letter as “Your humble friend.” It was set into type in the African Repository as “Your humble servant.”
Johnson went on to serve as Attorney General of Liberia from 1869 to 1871, was ousted in a coup, and ran a coffee plantation there until his death in 1884. A two-part article on him by Preston E. Pierce, “Liberian Dreams, West African Nightmare: The Life of Henry W. Johnson,” ran in the journal Rochester History in 2004 and 2005.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
(africa.) william mclain.
Letter soliciting funds for the American Colonization Society.
Washington, 12 October 1866
Lithographed circular letter, 9¾ x 7¾ inches, with Maine addressee’s name added in manuscript, and docketed on verso; folds, minimal wear.
“Shall we send to Liberia all the people who want to go, & are unable to pay their own expenses? . . . We have agreed to send 800, who are among the better class, families, parents and children, in the prime of life, the very people that Liberia needs. Every settlement there is crying out for more people to help to do the great civilising & missionary work on their hands!” Specific groups of ready emigrants in Columbia, SC, Newberry, SC, Macon, GA, Sparta, GA, and Knoxville, TN are named.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(africa.)
Carte-de-visite of four Black American missionaries heading to Africa, including Thomas Lewis Johnson.
London: J.F. Knights, circa 1877
Albumen photograph, 3¾ x 2¼ inches, on photographer’s mount; minimal wear.
Thomas Lewis Johnson (1836-1921), shown at right, was born in to slavery in Virginia, bounced from New York to Chicago to Denver as a Baptist minister after the war, and then went to England with his wife Henrietta in 1876 to prepare for missionary work. He was in Africa from late 1878 to 1880, mostly at Bakundu in Cameroon, but returned to England after the death of his wife. He lectured widely and published “Twenty-Eight Years a Slave, or The Story of My Life in Three Continents.” He is shown with Henrietta, her sister Isadora, and her husband Calvin Harris Richardson, all of whom accompanied him to Africa.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(africa.)
Cabinet card of missionary William Henry Sheppard and his African art collection.
Tuscaloosa, AL: Turner, 1892
Albumen photograph, 5½ x 3¾ inches, captioned in the negative, on original plain mount; minor wear.
William Henry Sheppard (1865-1927) is generally regarded as the first African-American collector of African art. Raised in Waynesboro, VA, he attended the Hampton Institute and became fascinated by its “Curiosity Room” of African artifacts. He went to Africa as a Presbyterian missionary in 1890, and became the first westerner to gain access to the Kuba or Bakuba kingdom in what is now the Republic of Congo. He later helped draw attention to atrocities in the colony committed by the Belgian king Leopold II. Over a 20-year period, he gathered a collection of Kuba art which donated to the Hampton Institute.
This cabinet card features a portrait of Sheppard, surrounded by pictures of his collection and Kuba people he had meet. The main caption reads “W.H. Sheppard, FRGS, the first foreigner to enter the Bakuba land, Central Africa, June 1892.” We have traced only one other example of this card, at Emory University.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(africa.) william tubman.
Letter from the president of Liberia regarding his dream of an Associated States of Africa.
Monrovia, Liberia, 12 June 1959
Letter Signed as “W.V.S. Tubman,” to Paul V. Butz of Tyler, TX. One page, 11 x 8¼ inches, on letterhead of the Executive Mansion; mailing folds, minimal wear.
William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman (1895-1971) was Liberia’s longest-serving president, in office from 1944 until his death, a period of economic growth. In this letter, he addresses a proposal for a United States of Africa: “Such a union would be unrealistic and would not meet the demand of present trends in Africa considering the differences in cultures, political outlook, the traditional and economic systems of the various African peoples. . . . A union based upon treaties and conventions of friendship, economic co-operation and other joint efforts might provide a sounder solution to the problems of Africa; we have therefore suggested the Associated States of Africa for the kind of union best suited to African States.”
WITH–3 stamps commemorating Tubman’s presidency, 1968-1969; and a newspaper clipping showing Tubman meeting Queen Elizabeth on a state visit to London.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(africa.)
First Time in America! Les Danseurs Africains. Sensational! Exotic! Native!
Detroit, MI: Afro-American Cultural Development Foundation, 5 May 1970
Poster in red and black, 22 x 14 inches, on card stock; small puncture in lower left, otherwise minimal wear.
Advertisement for a performance by a troupe of dancers, acrobats, singers, and musicians from Cameroon.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(africa.)
SWAPO: The People Armed.
Ithaca, NY: Glad Day Press, circa 1976
Poster, 22½ x 17½ inches; tack holes in corners, laid down on red board.
Commemorates the 1966 “beginning of the armed struggle in Namibia” by the South West Africa People’s Organization, with a quote from Kwame Nkrumah. It was printed in Ithaca, NY but published by the Liberation Support Movement of Berkeley, CA, with proceeds going to SWAPO. None traced at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(africa.)
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
$150 – $250
(africa.) kwame ture [formerly stokely carmichael].
Letter describing his vision for African socialism.
Conakry, Guinea, 27 July 1995
Autograph Letter Signed “Kwame Ture” to correspondent in San Diego, CA. 2 pages, 11½ x 8 inches; mailing folds, minimal wear. With original stamped envelope in his hand.
In 1969, Stokely Carmichael (1941-1998) moved to the Republic of Guinea and broke with the Black Panthers, taking the name Kwame Ture in 1978 as a tribute to his mentors Kwame Nkrumah and Sékou Touré. In this letter he writes: “Africa is increasing her speed toward unification. The rising consciousness of our masses moves ever faster. Military regimes are actually finished in Africa. . . . The masses now want only one thing, an honest leader. . . . This alone is a serious blow to neo-colonialism which . . . can only depend on sustained corruption. . . . The neglect of the immaterial force . . . among Africans who as a mass are very religious, caused hesitation in accepting Marxism-Leninism from my youth. This in fact is what led me to Nkrumatism-Tureism, showing that each people must have their own ideology. . . . Africa gave birth to Judaism, stabilized Christianity, saved Islam from destruction!” He closes with a wish for “One unified socialist Africa.”
Estimate
$500 – $750
Art
The Harmon Foundation Presents an Exhibition of the Work of Negro Artists.
New York: Harmon Foundation, February 1931
47, [1] pages including wrappers. 8vo, 8 x 5 inches, original illustrated wrappers, minor wear; one word inscribed on title page, minimal wear to contents.
Includes essays by A.A. Schomburg, Alain Locke and others, as well as illustrations of work by Loïs Mailou Jones, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, and many more.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Signed photograph of sculptor Richmond Barthé.
No place, 1933
Silver print, 7 x 8¾ inches, signed and inscribed “To my friend Dr. Alain Locke with best wishes from Barthé 1933”; minimal wear; bookplate of the collection of Dorothy Porter Wesley tipped to verso.
Inscribed by the important sculptor in the same year his work was exhibited at the Chicago World’s Fair. It is inscribed to his close friend, the important critic and philosopher of the Harlem Renaissance, Alain Locke.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Four watercolor portraits of North Carolina women and girls by Clary Webb Peoples.
[Near Asheville, NC], 1935 and undated
Watercolor and pencil on heavy paper, various sizes, each initialed “CWP”; light mat toning, mount remnants and 1962 accession stamps or numbers on verso.
These four portraits were created by a white amateur artist from North Carolina whose lifelong hobby was “sketching negroes.”
[Aunt Sarah Gudger.] 8 x 6 inches, 1935. Sarah Gudger (1816-1938) was born into slavery in the Oteen neighborhood of Asheville, and spent her entire life in the Asheville area. She was interviewed and photographed by the WPA Writers’ Project in 1937. Her 20 October 1938 Asheville Citizen obituary included research from Mrs. Peoples suggesting that Gudger was 119 at the time that this portrait was created, and 122 at the time of her death. Although this portrait is not captioned, Gudger’s connection to the artist, her level of local fame in her final years, and the close facial resemblance to the 1937 WPA portrait make this a strong attribution. The portrait is 8 x 6 inches.
[Aunt Annie Puryear.] 8¼ x 6 inches, mat remnants on recto; undated.
[Eva Singing Lullaby to Doll.] 9½ x 7½ inches; undated.
[Mary Lou.] 15¾ x 12 inches (wide margins); undated.
The artist Mrs. Emma Clary Webb Peoples (1878-1956) was the daughter of a Nashville grocer, and married the head of a Tennessee boarding school. They moved to Asheville, NC in the late 1920s, and remained there through at least 1943. She was generally known as Mrs. Clary Webb Peoples. She submitted photographs to the Nashville Banner as early as 1921, and her watercolors were exhibited in Asheville, NC in 1928 (Asheville Citizen, 3 April 1928). She exhibited 16 of her “water color studies of negro types” in Meadville, PA in 1944; “The Campus of Allegheny College” newspaper of 2 November 1944 noted “Sketching negroes has been a lifetime hobby of Mrs. Peoples, and she is still pursuing it.” Her daughter Clary Webb Peoples Bowen (1913-1991) was a fine arts major at Duke, but married in June 1938; she was not the artist behind these watercolors.
Provenance: deaccessioned by Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art, TN; Stair Galleries auction, 5 August 2017. The titles of each portrait were provided by Stair Galleries, presumably as obtained from the museum, but are not actually inscribed on the portraits.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
alain locke.
The Negro in Art: A Pictorial Record of the Negro Artist and of the Negro Theme in Art.
Washington, DC: Associates in Negro Folk Education, 1940
Color frontispiece plate, color double-page spread after page 124, hundreds of illustrations. 224 pages. 4to, publisher’s gilt cloth, minor wear; minimal wear to contents; signed and inscribed “For Julius Bloch, a friend of many years, Alain Locke, 1941” on front free endpaper.
First edition of the first serious book-length study of Black artists, by the longtime Howard University professor and key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. It is inscribed to a well-known German social realist painter.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Exhibition of the Art of the American Negro . . . Assembled by the American Negro Exposition.
Chicago, 4 July 1940
[12] pages. 4to, 10½ x 7¾ inches, original illustrated wrappers, minor soiling, cello tape mount remnants on rear wrapper; inscribed by the curator on the front wrapper “You know that my sincerest regards come with this to you, Alonzo J. Aden.”
The catalog for the Tanner Art Galleries exhibition in conjunction with Chicago’s American Negro Exposition. The front cover wrapper is illustrated with a piece by Charles White, and inside are 16 other black and white illustrations of works by Robert Duncanson, Frederic Flemister, Eldzier Cortor, Marvin Smith, William Carter, Hales Woodruff, Jacob Lawrence, Lois Maillou Jones, E. Simms Campbell, Donald Reid, Robert Blackburn, Elizabeth Catlett, Richmond Barthé, Sargent Johnson and Joseph Kersey. More than 300 individual pieces are listed for this historic exhibition, which Alain Locke describes in the preface as the “most comprehensive and representative collection of the Negro’s art that has ever been presented to public view.” The curator Alonzo Aden, who signed the cover, went on to found the Barnett-Aden Gallery in Washington, the first successful Black-owned gallery in the nation.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
robert savon pious, artist.
American Negro Exposition 1865 1940.
Chicago, 4 July 1940
Color screen print poster, 21¼ x 13¾ inches; moderate restoration, horizontal crease, light foxing, laid down on linen.
The American Negro Exposition of 1940 celebrated the 75th anniversary of Emancipation. This Chicago extravaganza featured 92 installations, music, art, and a Cavalcade of the Negro Theater (see lot 265). Robert Savon Pious (1908-1993), creator of this poster, was a prolific Black illustrator from the 1930s onward, working on everything from WPA murals to pulp fiction covers to comic books.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
joseph delaney.
Artists of Today, Drawings by: Joseph Delaney.
New York: Universal Publishing Co., 1944
15 leaves of black and white reproductions, plus one text leaf. 8vo, original comb-bound stiff card boards, printed label mounted to front cover, minor wear; related clippings taped to inner boards; gift inscription in unknown hand, “To Dean Huri, the one from Joe Delaney.”
An introduction to the work of an important Harlem Renaissance-era artist. Other copies have as many as 19 leaves. None others traced at auction.
Estimate
$300 – $400
charles white.
His “10” portfolio, signed and inscribed.
Los Angeles: Pro-Artis, 1961
Portfolio of ten photo-offset lithographs plus an introductory text leaf, 22 x 17 inches; small light scuffs in outer margins of text leaf and print #2, a few very light wrinkles and minimal wear to prints; inscribed on text sheet by the artist “To the Harmons with warmest regards, Charles White , May 17, 1965.” In original glossy paper portfolio reading simply “10/ Charles White” on front, 22½ x 17½ inches; split along fold, tape stains and moderate wear.
The prints include: “Southern News, Late Edition”; “Mayibuye Afrika”; “Go Tell It On the Mountain”; “Flying Fish”; “Let the Light Enter”; “Awaken from the Unknowing”; “Birth of Spring”; “C’est L’Amour”; “Nocturne”; and “Move On Up a Little Higher.” The text sheet is headed “10/ Charles White” and features an introduction by singer-activist Harry Belafonte. The portfolio’s inner flap includes extensive biographical notes on the artist, as well as his “Statement on Personal Philosophy” and a list of contents.
WITH–White’s ACA Gallery exhibition catalog laid in; 8 pages, minor staining. New York, 17 May 1965.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
National Conference of Artists Presents: A Print Portfolio by Negro Artists.
Chicago, 1963
29, [1] prints plus 3 introductory leaves, each 11 x 8½ inches, in original portfolio; minor dampstaining to contents, more notable on portfolio; #328 of a limited edition of 500.
This portfolio was created by the Atlanta University-based National Conference of Artists as “a souvenir in observance of the Emancipation Proclamation Centennial, 1863-1963.” The cover sheet states that “copies of this portfolio are to be sent to the libraries of African countries and to leading libraries in the United States.” The second sheet features a quote from Charles White and a half-tone print of his 1953 “Mother and Child” (with more staining than the other prints). Biographical sketches and portraits of the 29 featured artists follow on 4 pages, followed by one numbered print by each. Margaret Burroughs (whose contribution is illustrated here) served as editor of the project. Among the artists are Sylvester Britton, Calvin Burnett, Bernard Goss, Gregory Ridley Jr., Ruth Waddy, and Irene Clark. None traced at auction.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
ted shearer.
Group of original cartoon art, including 3 of his Quincy strips.
No place, circa 1960-1972
Ink and pencil on stiff paper, tinted with screentone overlays, and printed caption or credit slips laid down, various sizes; minimal foxing and adhesive staining, minimal wear, the Quincy screentones browned, the larger drawings laid down to heavier mat board but coming detached.
Thaddeus “Ted” Shearer (1919-1992) was born in Jamaica and raised in Harlem. After meeting the established artist E. Simms Campbell (see lot 239) in high school, he went on to a long career as an artist and art director. His one-panel “Next Door” comic launched in syndication to the Black press in 1942, appearing in the Pittsburgh Courier and elsewhere. He is best known for his daily strip Quincy, featuring the adventures of a young Harlem boy and his friends, which had national syndication from 1970 to 1986.
Offered here are 4 of his “Next Door” panels, and 3 “Quincy” strips. The “Next Door” panels are each about 11 x 8 inches. They appear to date from the early 1960s, probably for publication in the New York Amsterdam News–they do not match the style of his most widely syndicated 1940s work, but look quite a bit like his Quincy strips from the 1970s. One strip makes a reference to “1962 pennies,” and another is a fundraising appeal for the Amsterdam News Camp Fund which predates the 1963 introduction of zip codes. Two feature a hapless middle-aged character named Mr. Puddinhead, while another (the Camp Fund appeal) features the unmistakable future star “Lil’ Quincy.”
The three Quincy strips, each about 6 x 17 inches, are easier to place. They bear printed King Features Syndicate copyright slips and are dated in manuscript, 30 March 1971 (but with an inked stamp reading 26 February 1971 on verso), 3 August 1972, and 30 June 1973. In the 1971 strip, Quincy’s young friend is bound for the planetarium and hopes that the stars on the ceiling will include Sidney Poitier and Flip Wilson. The 1972 strip (illustrated) shows Quincy and his friends luxuriating in an open fire hydrant.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
bernard goss.
Portrait of Claude A. Barnett, founder of the Associated Negro Press.
No place, 1964
Ink and pencil on paper, 14 x 10¼ inches, signed in ink “B Goss ‘64”; spot-mounted to mat board on top edge, with caption on mat naming the sitter.
Bernard Goss (1913-1966) was a prominent Black artist from Chicago, a founder of the South Side Community Art Center. His sitter Claude Albert Barnett (1889-1967) founded the Associate Negro Press in 1919, and did not retire until 1966. He traveled widely in Africa and was a committed opponent of segregation. His wife Etta Moten Barnett (see lots 283, 345, and 346) was a singer, actress, and civic leader.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
manet harrison fowler.
Still life with sheet music, French horn, and cymbal.
No place, June 1965
Watercolor on paper, 24 x 18 inches; mounted on board over an unidentified print, tack holes in margins.
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 sheet music in this still life, issued for a high school marching band, is marked for use by Mrs. Manet [Fowler] at the Mwalimu Center.
Estimate
$500 – $750
manet harrison fowler.
Still life with flowers and Tuskegee pennant.
New York, 4 January 1967
Watercolor on paper, 17¾ x 14½ inches; tack holes on corners, mounted on early board.
Manet Harrison Fowler (1895-1976) was a Texas native and 1913 graduate of the Tuskegee Institute. She 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.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Group of 4 exhibition catalogues from the Black Arts Movement era.
Various places, 1967-1973
4 items, various sizes, each in original wrappers; minor wear as noted.
“The Evolution of Afro-American Artists: 1800-1950.” 4to, 70 pages; sticker residue on front wrapper, early owner’s inked stamp on inner wrapper. New York: City University of New York, 1967.
“New Perspectives in Black Art.” Tall 8vo, 24 pages, publisher’s inked stamp on inner wrapper. Exhibition at the Oakland Museum; with illustrations of works by Ruth Waddy, Marie Edwards Johnson-Calloway, and more. Oakland, CA: Art-West Associated North, 1968.
“30 Contemporary Black Artists.” 4to, [20] pages, with illustrations of works by Romare Bearden and William Majors, and short biographies of many more. Minneapolis, MN: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1968.
“Blacks:USA:1973.” 4to, [27] pages, with introduction by guest curator Benny Andrews. New York: New York Cultural Center, 1973.
Estimate
$400 – $600
dana chandler.
Pan-African Man.
Boston, 1970
Screen print, 22 x 17 inches; minor edge wear, light printing smudges.
No other examples of this representative work by “Pan-African Artist” Dana C. Chandler Jr. have been traced at auction.
Estimate
$600 – $900
noah purifoy, et al.
Junk [Art: 66 Signs of Neon].
Los Angeles, CA, circa 1971
Numerous illustrations. [12] pages. Illustrated wrappers in tan and black, 13¾ x 10½ inches, minor wear.
The 66 Signs of Neon exhibition was born from the 1965 Watts Uprising. Sculptor Noah Purifoy found himself scavenging through the ruins of the neighborhood in search of fragments of accidental beauty. He came to lead a collective of like-minded artists who mounted an exhibition of their “junk art” in 1966, and then sent it on tour through 1971. This catalog, in the enigmatic spirit of the art, has no date or proper title, but does feature explanatory text credited to “Noah Purifoy as told to Ted Michel.” The work displayed within is by Purifoy, Judson Powell, and other artists, and is the only contemporary document on this seminal exhibition. One copy in OCLC, at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston; none traced at auction.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
(art)
AfriCOBRA 1: Ten in Search of a Nation.
Chicago: W J Studios and Gallery, 13 September [1970]
Double-sided poster, 22 x 17 inches; minimal wear.
The group of ten artists known as AfriCOBRA (African Commune Of Bad Relevant Artists) was formed in 1968, and mounted their first formal exhibition in July 1970 at the Studio Museum in Harlem. The show then went on the road, with the first stop being the show advertised here at the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. 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, Gerald Williams, Jae Jarrell, and Wadsworth Jarrell–who created this poster at his W J Studios.
This copy of the poster was in the 2017 Brooklyn Museum touring exhibition “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-1985.”
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
ABA: A Journal of Affairs of Black Artists.
[Dorchester, MA], circa March 1971
Numerous illustrations. 28 pages. 4to, 11 x 8½ inches, original glossy-stock wrappers, minor soiling; early owner’s signature on front wrapper.
The first and only issue of this ambitious journal, featuring articles by Edmund B. Gaither, Abdul Hakimu Ibn Alkalimat (Gerald McWhorter), JoAnn Whatley (an interview with Benny Andrews about his Black Emergency Cultural Coalition and its impending boycott of the Whitney), and Elvin Montgomery (writing on the 19th-century Californian artist and engraver Grafton Tyler Brown). In the rear are notes on upcoming exhibitions and other news bits; Hughie Lee-Smith offers a short appreciation for the late James Amos Porter. None traced at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Rebuttal to Whitney Museum Exhibition.
New York, 6 April [1971]
Printed invitation, 4 oblong pages (5½ x 8½ inches) on one folding sheet; minimal staining.
An exhibition of 75 Black artists was planned at the Whitney for April 1971, but faced with a lack of collaboration, 15 of the artists withdrew in observance of a boycott called by the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition. This invitation advertises a separate exhibit held by the withdrawn artists at Acts of Art Gallery, which included well-known figures such as Sam Gilliam and Roy de Carava. It includes an explanation by Acts of Art owner Nigel Jackson. The image in this invitation is of a wire sculpture by James Denmark titled “Head of an Invisible King.”
Estimate
$400 – $600
Black American Artists/71.
Iowa City, IA, 2 November 1971
[16] pages including wrappers. 4to, 11 x 8½ inches, original illustrated wrappers, minimal wear.
This catalog was produced for a traveling exhibition organized and sponsored by Illinois Bell Telephone, which made stops at 7 galleries in 3 states. This copy was distributed at the final stop, the University of Iowa Museum of Art in Iowa City, where it was shown from 2 November 1971 to 2 January 1972. The catalog lists 136 pieces, and includes 28 black and white illustrations including works by Romare Bearden, Sam Gilliam, David Hammons, and Charles White. In addition to an essay by curator Robert Glauber, 5 of the artists have offered their extended thoughts “on being Black in 1971,” including Sam Gilliam. A list of the artist’s personal mailing addresses is appended for anyone hoping to purchase their work. No others traced at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Exhibition poster for the Acts of Art Gallery featuring Dindga McCannon and others.
New York, 19 June 1972
Poster, 22½ x 17½ inches; minimal wear and dampstaining, two tack holes at corners.
Acts of Art was founded in 1969 as the only gallery in downtown Manhattan run by and for Black artists. This poster features a reproduction of “Slaves, Shackles, and Prods” by Dindga McCannon (a founder of the Where We At: Black Women Artists collective), and the names of other prominent New York Black artists.
We trace no other examples of this poster in OCLC or at auction. Only one other Acts of Art exhibition poster has been traced at auction, for their 1970 “Rebuttal to Whitney Museum Exhibition” show, at Swann on 26 March 2020.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Group of 4 pieces of exhibition ephemera from the “Where We At: Black Women Artists” art collective.
New York, 1979-1992
4 items, various sizes; minimal wear.
Where We At: Black Women Artists was formed in 1971 as the first art collective formed by Black women artists, and remained active in the New York area through the 1990s. This lot includes:
“Weusi Academy Presents: Space, an Exhibition Featuring Where We At Black Women Artists.” Handbill, 9 x 8 inches, for show at Consortium Gallery featuring Dindga McCannon and others. New York, 4 March 1979.
“‘Where We At’ Black Women Artists. Directions ‘81: Creative Expressions.” Flier, 14 x 8½ inches, for show at Benin Gallery, illustrated with a work by Joyce Wellman. New York, 21 May 1981.
“Joining Forces” [1+1=3]. Postcard, 7½ x 6 inches, for two shows by “Where We At Black Women Artists Inc. and their invited male artists” (including Dindga McCannon and Kerry Marshall) at Gallery 1199 and the Muse Community Museum. New York, 7 March 1986.
“Living Legacy: A 20 Year Retrospective.” Poster, 22 x 17½ inches. Illustrated with a work by Miriam B. Francis. Brooklyn, NY: Center for Art & Culture, 15 March 1992.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
romare bearden.
The Olympics: Where Men & Women of All Nations Engage in Peaceful Competition.
No place, [1976]
Color screenprint, 40 x 25 inches, full margins; minimal wear; #84 of an edition of 200, signed and numbered in pencil in lower margin. Gelburd/Rosenberg GG#53.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
elizabeth catlett.
Portfolio of 5 lithographs.
Mexico: Litografos Unidos, circa 1973
Black and white offset lithographs, 18½ x 12¾ inches, in original brown and black illustrated folding paper portfolio with descriptive text on verso; 8-inch strip excised from portfolio, minimal wear to prints.
The prints are not signed or captioned, but are listed on the portfolio flap: Skipping Rope, 1958; Black Maternity, 1959; The Black Woman Speaks, 1960; Mother and Son, 1971; Black is Beautiful, 1972 (illustrated).
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
jean lacy.
Old Testament Biblical Images through the Black Experience.
No place: Christian Education in Black Churches, 1973
11 posters including text sheet, each 14 x 19¾ inches; “Jacob and Angel” with adhesion loss in image, otherwise minimal wear.
The artist and educator Jean Lacy served as director of the African American Cultural Heritage Center in Dallas from 1977 to 1988, and her work has been widely exhibited including a solo show at the Tyler Museum of Art. This portfolio was developed by the Inner City Task Force of the Board of Education of the Southern California / Arizona Conference of the United Methodist Church. It includes 10 reimaginings of Old Testament scenes in the tradition of Jacob Lawrence, including “Creation (Breath of Life)”; “Adam and Eve (in the Garden)”; “Abraham”; “Jacob and Angel”; “Joseph (Joseph’s Dream)”; “Moses (Mount Sinai)”; “The Passover”; “Golden Calf”; “David”; and “Solomon.” The text sheet includes an overview by Nathaniel L. Lacy Jr., suggested questions for children, and a description of each image and its “Black cultural patterns.” None others traced in OCLC or at auction.
Estimate
$600 – $900
David Hammons: Rousing the Rubble.
Cambridge, MA: Institute for Contemporary Art, 1991
95, [1] pages. 4to, publisher’s cloth, minimal wear; in original dust jacket with minor wear at spine head; signed by the artist on the first page “David Hammons 91” under his portrait.
A collection of essays produced in conjunction with a touring exhibition organized by the Institute for Contemporary Art. Laid in are a postcard and clipping from the exhibition’s San Diego stop, August-September 1991. Provenance: Library of the late Edward Leffingwell, curator and critic; sold by Spoonbill Books of New York to the consignor in 2014, the year of Leffingwell’s death. We track no other signed examples at auction.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
amiri baraka.
Portrait of Charlie Parker titled “Boperator.”
No place, September 2002
Ink and pastel on card, 6 x 4 inches, signed and dated, on verso of June 2002 exhibition postcard; slightly bowed with minor wear.
Known as an author, Baraka was also a lover of jazz and an occasional visual artist.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin banneker.
Banneker’s . . . Almanack and Ephemeris, for the Year of our Lord, 1792.
Baltimore, MD: William Goddard and James Angell, [1791]
Anatomy engraving on page 6. [42 of 48] pages. 12mo, stitched; Banneker’s name written thrice on title page, lacking leaves B5, B11, and B12, some loss to fore-edge not affecting text except for a few words on leaf B10, moderate dampstaining; uncut; several early ownership inscriptions in margins.
Banneker’s scarce first almanac. It begins with an endorsement by James McHenry, one of the signers of the Constitution: “Benjamin Banneker, a free Negro, has calculated an Almanack, for the ensuing year. . . . His father was an African, and his mother the offspring of African parents. . . . Whatever merit is attached to his present performance, is exclusively and peculiarly his own. . . . I consider this Negro as a fresh proof that the powers of the mind are disconnected with the colour of the skin. . . . I cannot but wish, on this occasion, to see the Public patronage keep pace with my black friend’s merit.” The editors add an additional note of support to introduce “an extraordinary Effort of Genius . . . calculated by a sable Descendant of Africa . . . controverting the long-established illiberal Prejudice against the Blacks.”
Among the important dates noted in Banneker’s almanac are Washington’s birthday. Among the bits of information and wisdom which precede and follow the calendar portion, a note on page 5 reads “Needles first made in London, by a Negro, from Spain, in the reign of Q. Mary.” Banneker sent the manuscript of this first almanac to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, which began a famous correspondence.
The title page appears in two states; this is apparently the second state with the author’s name corrected from “Banniker.” No others traced at auction since the 14 February 1985 John Howell sale, lot 42. Drake 2226; Evans 23148.
Estimate
$15,000 – $25,000
Benjamin banneker.
His famous correspondence with Thomas Jefferson, as published in an issue of the Universal Asylum
Philadelphia: William Young, October 1792
and Columbian Magazine. Pages [217]-287. 8vo, disbound; minimal wear.
African-American scientist Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806) is best known today for the annual almanacs he published in Baltimore. In an effort to promote his first almanac, he sent a draft to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, also a man of science, and received a thoughtful response. Their exchange was published in the Virginia Gazette, and is here reprinted on pages 222-224. Banneker starts by noting “the almost general prejudice and prepossession which is so prevalent in the world against those of my complexion. . . . We are a race of beings who have long labored under the abuse and censure of the world.” He compares his race’s quest for freedom to the efforts Jefferson and other patriots made during the recent Revolution, and concludes by sending a manuscript of his astronomical calculations “that you might also view it in my own hand-writing.”
Jefferson’s response is short but at least somewhat sincere: “Nobody wishes more than I do, to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colours of men; and that the appearance of the want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America.” He hopes for the means to educate African-Americans “as fast as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances which cannot be neglected, will admit.” He calls Banneker’s almanac “a document to which your whole colour had a right, for their justification against the sentiments which have been entertained of them.” Later in the magazine are Jefferson’s “Remarks on the Constitution of the United States.”
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Black Panthers
Photo of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization’s candidate for sheriff holding his Black Panther flier.
Haynesville, AL, 3 May 1966
Wire photo, 8½ x 6½ inches, with only a print number on verso; Favor’s name underlined in ink.
In this press photo captioned “Third Party Candidate,” insurgent candidate for sheriff Jesse Favor points to the crouching black panther logo, urging “One Man, One Vote.”
Estimate
$600 – $900
Photo of Stokely Carmichael with a Lowndes County Freedom Organization flier: “Black Panther Leader Promoted.”
Haynesville, AL, 17 May 1966
Wire photograph, 11 x 8 inches, with inked newspaper stamp on verso; minor wear, Carmichael’s name underlined in red ink, with a bit of the ink in the image.
In addition to commemorating Carmichael’s promotion to chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, this press photo includes an early pre-Oakland appearance of the Black Panther logo.
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
Lowndes County, Alabama pinback featuring an early version of the Black Panther logo.
Lowndes County, AL, circa 1965-1966
Pinback button, 1¼ inches across; rust on verso, minimal wear.
This button apparently dates to the period when Stokely Carmichael and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee were organizing with the Lowndes County Freedom Organization in Alabama, and developed the iconic Black Panther logo to help with their voter registration drive.
Estimate
$600 – $900
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; 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
$600 – $900
Group of 3 photographs of the early Panthers by the staff photographer of the Oakland Tribune, Ron Riesterer.
Oakland, CA, images dated 1967-1968, later prints
Silver prints, 14 x 11 inches, from original negatives, each signed and captioned by the photographer on verso.
Ron Riesterer was the long-time staff photographer for the Oakland Tribune, and won a Pulitzer Prize. This lot includes signed prints of 3 of his many Black Panther images, including: the best known of them, captioned “Bobby Hutton in front of O.P.D.,” 22 May 1967; “Bobby Seale at Panther Rally in Oakland,” April 1968; and “Bobby Seale & Panthers press conference in front of 1218 28th St., Oakland, site of Hutton shooting,” 12 April 1968.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Group of 3 press photographs of the Panthers marching in Sacramento.
Sacramento, CA, 2 May 1967
3 photographs, various sizes; captions and notations on verso, crop marks and notations on recto.
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was formed in Oakland, CA in October 1966, and gained local attention for its armed police-monitoring patrols. The California legislature, spooked by this activity, drafted legislation to forbid carrying loaded weapons in public. On 2 May 1967, a large group of armed Black Panthers arrived at the State Capitol in Sacramento to protest the restriction of their rights. This, more than any other single event, brought the Panthers national attention. These three photographs helped tell the story.
Original photograph, 7 x 9 inches, with folding caption label tipped to verso. Shows a group of Panthers, three of them bearing rifles, in front of large oil portraits of the governors in the halls of the legislature. Community activist Mark Comfort (1934-1976) can be seen at center near the rear, wearing a beret. Issued by Wide World Photos, the image is titled simply “Invaders.”
Wire photo, 8 x 11 inches, captioned in the negative; browned. Shows a policeman escorting 3 Panthers including Bobby Seale out of the Capitol. The policeman is holding two of their rifles.
Wire photo, 8 x 7½ inches, with printed caption on verso; browned, cropped to the right, lightly retouched. Activist Mark Comfort, holding a rifle, speaks with Assemblyman Willie Brown (later the mayor of San Francisco).
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
The Racist Dog Policemen Must Withdraw Immediately From Our Communities.
Emeryville, CA: Black Panther Party for Self Defense, [early 1967?]
Poster, 35 x 23 inches; minimal wear including tack holes in upper corners and very light wrinkling; a strong example.
The iconic poster of Huey Newton seated with rifle and spear on a fan-backed chair. The photograph is attributed to Blair Stapp.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Vote Nov 5th, Huey Newton for U.S. Congress.
No place, [1968]
Poster, 23 x 17½ inches, in red and black; lone tack hole near top edge, otherwise minimal wear.
Newton ran this congressional campaign from prison. This poster urges voters to “Defend the Black Community and the People’s Human Rights” and concludes “All Power to All the People, Black Power to Black People.” The photograph was taken by Kenneth Green of the Oakland Tribune at a 1967 rally in Richmond, CA, and was the first widely circulated official Panther image of Newton.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
Opening Salvos from a Black-White Gun.
Berkeley, CA, 1 November 1968
Double-sided broadsheet, 17 x 22 inches, printed in purple on lavender paper; original folds.
A collaboration between the Black Panthers and the Yippies. One side features dueling manifestos on the 1968 “year of the pig” election by Eldridge Cleaver and a committee of Yippies led by Abby Hoffman. The other side invites us to a “Pre-Erection Day Party” (sic) at the Berkeley Community Theatre featuring Cleaver, Jerry Rubin, the Floating Lotus Magic Opera Company, and a light show. The design is credited to “A. Kitt,” the layout to “J. Baldwin,” and hookah art by “Allston and Milvia.”
Estimate
$600 – $900
A Rule of Thumb of Revolutionary Politics . . . the Means of Making that Revolution are Always Near . . .
San Francisco, CA: Guerrilla, 1968
Eldridge Cleaver for President. Volume 2, issue 3 of the periodical Guerrilla. Two-sided broadsheet, 22½ x 16¼ inches; light foxing, tack holes in corners and along bottom margin, minor wear.
A single-sheet newspaper described as “a broadside of poetry & revolution,” the verso is headed “The Spirit of the People will be Stronger than the Pigs’ Technology” and includes an article on Eldridge Cleaver, the Black Panther Party platform, and more.
Estimate
$400 – $600
[emory douglas; artist.]
Bobby, Huey: Political Prisoners of USA Fascism.
San Francisco, CA: Black Panther Party, circa 1970
Poster, 28½ x 22½ inches; tape remnants with removal touching image in lower corners, phone number written in upper margin, moderate wear.
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
The Panthers Want to Kill All White People, Right? Wrong!
Long Island City, NY, 6 February 1970
2-page flier, 14 x 8½ inches, on one Xeroxed sheet; horizontal fold.
Issued in support of the Panther 21, on trial for attacks on New York governmental offices in 1969. It advertises a rally at Long Island City High School, where Panther 21 detainee Lonnie Epps was a student. It promotes the Black Panthers as a unifying, positive force in their community, with quotes by Fred Hampton and Eldridge Cleaver, but also emphasizes the need for “self-defense to protect their community against brutalization by the pigs.”
Estimate
$500 – $750
Washington at Dept. of Injustice: Stop the Trial, Free Bobby, Youth International Party.
Washington, 15 November [1969]
Flier, 11 x 8½ inches, in red and black; folds, minor wear, unrelated short note on verso.
This protest was planned to coincide with a massive anti-war demonstration, which drew 250,000 protestors. As noted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of 16 November 1969, “A permit had been obtained for a later rally at the Justice Department . . . to protest against the Chicago conspiracy trial. The rally never took place. The protest leaders did not show up. Instead, several thousand youths led by a small contingent wearing motorcycle helmets, carrying Viet Cong flags and red banners massed at the high iron doors of the Justice Department and began hurling bottles and stones through windows. They chanted ‘Free Bobby Seale’ and ‘Stop the trial.’”
Provenance: offered with a long note by the original owner to the present consignor (neither named): “It was handed to me when I was a grad student at GWU in DC. . . . I went to some rallies against the war. . . . I found it recently in an old Brit Lit textbook. We were young then and now we’re not! . . . We remember well the trials.” 21 January 2020.
Estimate
$600 – $900
[j. alvin kugelmass.]
Black Panthers: Who Are They? What Are Their Plans?
New York: Universal Publishing, 1969
Numerous illustrations. [64] pages. 4to, original pictorial wrappers, minor wear; minor foxing.
A sympathetic journalist’s account of the early years of the Panthers, prefaced by a long history of the structural racism and generations of activism which preceded them. No others traced at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Benefit Performance, the Bobby Seale Defense Fund: A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
No place, 24 October [1970]
Poster, 22 x 17 inches; 1½-inch closed tear on top edge, minor foxing and wear.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Nous Devons Sauver Bobby Seale.
Paris: Comite de Solidarité aux B.P.P. / Simone de Beauvoir, circa 1969
Poster, 24½ x 16½ inches; 2-inch and ½-inch repaired closed tears on bottom edge, mount remnants on verso, other minor wear.
The central image is reversed and adapted from a Stephen Shames photograph of Seale. The title translates from French to “We Must Save Bobby Seale.” It was produced by a French committee of solidarity with the Black Panther Party, with credit given to the French feminist intellectual Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986). We know of no other connection between Beauvoir and the Panthers. None in OCLC.
Estimate
$400 – $600
emory douglas, artist.
When I Spend More Time Fightin the Rats . . .
San Francisco, CA, [1970]
Poster in black and purple, 22¾ x 15 inches, on newsprint; folds, minor dampstaining and soiling, heavier soiling on verso.
“When I spend more time fightin the rats, than taking care of my children, you know, it makes me realize that I have a right to kill the greedy slumlords who forces me to live in these inhuman conditions. . . . We want decent housing fit for shelter of human beings.” Behind the protagonist are an array of Black Panther posters featuring Ericka Huggins, Huey Newton, and Bobby Seale; a rent bill is on her table. This image was also issued as the back cover of the 25 July 1970 issue of the Black Panther Community News Service. Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas, page 81. One in OCLC, at the University of Michigan; no other examples traced at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
The Black Panther: Black Community News Service.
San Francisco, 1969-1973 (bulk 1970)
34 issues plus one duplicate (incomplete run) in one box; horizontal folds, generally minor to moderate wear; not collated; one signed by Bobby Seale.
Many of the issues contain revolutionary art by Emory Douglas. Highlights include the 17 February 1970 “Happy Birthday Huey” issue with him seated in the famous fan-backed chair; 28 February 1970 with “One of Our Main Purposes is to Unify Our Brothers and Sisters in the North”; 15 March 1970 featuring Bobby Seale in the electric chair, signed by Seale (illustrated); 17 October 1970 with Bunchy Carter memorial centerfold; and 5 December 1970 with Fred Hampton cover and Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention insert. By year, the 35 issues include 4 issues from 1969 (one lacking the first leaf); 21 issues from 1970; 9 issues from 1971; and a lone issue from 1973.
WITH–two contemporary newspapers: The Student Mobilizer, “Wallposter No. 4,” reading “Greetings graduating seniors, You are hereby ordered to report for induction into the U.S. Army.” 5 May 1969; and Basta Ya! Los Siete de la Raza, “Special Walkout Issue,” “Panther Issue No. 4,” 20 September 1969.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
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.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
A Chicago Seed Extra: When One Of Us Falls, 1,000 Will Take His Place.
Chicago, 6 December [1969]
2 illustrated pages on one sheet, 16 x 11 inches; minimal wear.
A special insert from a Chicago underground newspaper, issued two days after Fred Hampton’s death, examining the facts of the case and urging donations to the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Group of crime scene photographs taken shortly after the killing of Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.
Chicago, 12 December 1969
13 original photographs (not wire photos), various sizes but all about 11 x 8 inches; minor wear; various newspaper morgue stamps, caption labels, notations, and later bar codes on verso.
These photographs were taken at the scene just eight days after the killing of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark by the Chicago police and FBI. Most show bullet-pocked doors and walls of the Panther headquarters. One shows several copies of a Black Panther “Statement to the Black Community” scattered on the floor, and in another, a stack of Black Panther Community News Service issues is stacked atop a folded mattress. One wall is covered with newspaper clippings about the Panthers’ earlier gun battle with the police. One photo shows a scale model of the apartment set up in the state attorney’s office, and another shows the apartment’s exterior rear exit.
These images were taken by Chicago Tribune photographers, mostly longtime staffer James O’Leary, and apparently come from that paper’s morgue. 4 of them have Tribune clippings affixed on verso to show where the photographs were published.
WITH–a later UPI Telephoto wire photo of the investigation dated 8 January 1970, from the same source.
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
dana c. chandler, jr.
USA Government Approved ‘69: Fred Hampton, Black Panther Party. Fred Hamton’s Door.
No place, 1970
Poster, 22 x 17 inches; 1-inch closed tear with tape repair, a bit of uneven toning in right margin, other minor wear.
The artist drew this from his original painting of Fred Hampton’s bullet-pocked door. None in OCLC.
Estimate
$600 – $900
[emory douglas, artist.]
You Can Jail a Revolutionary, but You Can’t Jail a Revolution.
Chicago: Black Panther Party, circa 1969-1970
Poster, 23 x 17½ inches, in blue and black; tack hole in one corner and ½ inch of loss in the other, otherwise minimal wear.
Features a photographic image of Chicago Panther leader Fred Hampton (1948-1969), who had been killed in his sleep by the Chicago police. Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas, page 107.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Fred Hampton is a Black Panther . . . Assassinated Dec. 4, 1969.
Chicago: Black Panther Party, circa 1970
Poster, 18 x 24 inches; minor toning and wrinkling.
Commemorates the Chicago chapter’s deputy chairman after his December 1969 execution by the police and FBI. Two Panther logos are in the caption area. None traced at auction or in OCLC; copies held by Wisconsin Historical Society and the Center for the Study of Political Graphics.
Estimate
$600 – $900
“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 dampstaining and wear, tack holes in upper corners, tape remnants on verso.
Probably issued not long after Hampton’s December 1969 shooting by the Chicago police.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
[félix beltrán.]
Libertad para Angela Davis.
Cuba: Comite por la Libertad de Angela Davis, circa 1971
Poster, 21¼ x 13¼ inches, in blue, orange and black; original folds, faintly visible tackholes in corners, otherwise minimal wear.
“The poster was one of the Cuban OSPAAAL series, an insert in the magazine Tricontinental. It is probably the most widespread Davis image”–Angela Davis: Seize the Time, page 65 (the image is also used on the book’s cover). The poster was later reissued in New York.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
dana c. chandler, jr.
Angela Davis! This Black Woman is a Heroine!! Free Angela Now!!!
No place, 1970
Don’t Wait Until She is Dead to Honor Her! Poster, 22 x 17 inches; light diagonal crease, otherwise minimal wear.
Not in OCLC, but one example in Atlanta University. Not in Angela Davis: Seize the Time.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Freiheit für unsere Angela Davis!
Black and white poster, 31¾ x 22½ inches; minimal wear.
This poster was issued by the East German Communist Party’s main women’s organization. Artwork of a shackled Angela Davis is superimposed over a photograph of a mass protest, with one protester holding a sign reading “Free Angela, Hands off the Communist Party.” The artwork is credited to Kloss & Marschke. The caption translates to “Freedom for our Angela Davis!”
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Victory Will Soon Be Ours . . . Angela Davis.
No place, circa 1971
Screen print, 24 x 18 inches; pinholes in corners, tape remnants on verso, minor wear.
None others traced at auction or in OCLC.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Group of 7 press photographs of Angela Davis.
Various places, 1970-1973
Wire photographs, about 8 x 10 inches and smaller, with various inked stamps, captions, and clippings on verso; minor wear.
One 1970 montage contrasts Davis as a young girl, as a philosophy professor, and upon her arrest in New York. Others show her at her 1971 trial, a rally of her supporters in front of the courthouse, and posed in front of a larger-than-life portrait of herself at a 1973 hearing. One shows a montage of her hand gestures during an interview while in prison, 27 December 1971.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Group of Angela Davis ephemera.
Various places: 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 flier, 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
$250 – $350
Group of 4 “Wanted by the FBI” posters for Panthers and other radicals.
Washington, DC, 1968-83
Each 16 x 10½ inches; folds, minimal wear.
Angela Yvonne Davis for interstate flight, murder, and kidnapping, addressed to Huntington, WV, marked in pencil “post,” 18 August 1970.
Leroy Eldridge Cleaver, for interstate flight and assault with intent to commit murder, addressed to Whitefield, NH and forwarded to Sacramento, CA, minimal dampstaining, 13 December 1968.
Hubert Geroid Brown [H. Rap Brown], for interstate flight, arson, inciting to riot, and failure to appear, addressed to Huntington, WV, 5 May 1970.
Donald David DeFreeze of the Symbionese Liberation Army, for bank robbery, interstate flight, possession of homemade bomb, robbery, receiving stolen property, and assault with force, unaddressed, 17 April 1974.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Vote for Peace, Jobs & Equality (signed by Angela Davis and Gus Hall).
Communist Party USA, 1980 or 1984
Poster, 21 x 15 inches; minimal wear; signed by both candidates in ink.
Hall and Davis were the Communist Party ticket for the presidency in both 1980 and 1984, and used the “People Before Profits” slogan in both campaigns.
Estimate
$600 – $900
david mosley, artist.
George Jackson, Field Marshal, Black Panther Party.
Los Angeles: Mosley International Productions, 1971
Black and white poster, 29 x 23 inches; minor wear and light toning on left edge, formerly rolled.
Includes a long excerpt from one of his Soledad prison letters: “If I leave here alive, I’ll leave nothing behind. They’ll never count me among the broken men, but I can’t say that I’m normal either. I’ve been hungry too long, I’ve gone angry too often. I’ve been lied to and insulted too many times.” One other traced at auction (Swann sale, 1 March 2012, lot 166); none in OCLC, none traced elsewhere.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Free the Soledad Brothers.
Berkeley, CA: Soledad Brothers Defense Committee, [1970-71]
Poster, 22½ x 17½ inches; minimal wear, small smudge in top margin.
On 13 January 1970, three Black inmates at Soledad Prison were shot by a prison guard for engaging in a fist-fight. 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
$1,000 – $1,500
Group of 6 press photos relating to George Jackson of the Soledad Brothers and San Quentin Six.
Various places, images dated 1970-1971, prints dated 1970-1985
Wire and promotional photographs, about 8 x 10½ inches and smaller, with various inked stamps, captions, and clippings on verso; most with crop marks and retouching.
Includes 4 candid portraits of Jackson in prison garb, one of them issued for the posthumous release of his memoir Soledad Brother in 1972; a photograph of the signature on his controversial will leaving his estate to the Black Panther Party; and a 1985 print from the 1970 Marin County Courthouse incident which was intended to secure Jackson’s release.
Estimate
$500 – $750
rafael morante, artist.
Power to the People, George.
Poster, 13 x 20¾ inches; original mailing folds, scarcely visible pin holes in corners, otherwise minimal wear.
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. Many of the OSPAAAL posters were originally distributed internationally in issues of the Tricontinental, hence the center fold.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
“harf,” artist.
Portrait poster of Ericka Huggins.
No place, 1972
Poster, 19¾ x 16¾ inches, on thin paper, captioned simply “Ericka”; moderate foxing and minor wear.
No other examples have been traced in OCLC or at auction, nor have we identified the copyright holder “Harf.”
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Justice Amerikan Style.
Boston: Boston Panther Defense Committee, circa April 1970
Double-sided photocopied flier, 14 x 8½ inches, illustrated with a photograph of Ericka Huggins; minor wear.
Offers a detailed summary of the New Haven Nine case through the contempt convictions of Emory Douglas and David Hilliard.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Group of 6 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, minimal wear except as noted.
“When the slave of imperialism . . . picks up guns against the imperialist” with art by Emory Douglas; tape repairs at folds.
“The racist dog policeman must withdraw immediately / Dynamite” with art by Emory Douglas; minor edge wear.
“Revolutionary Student” with art by Emory Douglas.
“Get Out of the Ghetto” with art by Emory Douglas.
“What We Want, October 1966 Black Panther Platform.”
“The racist dog policeman must withdraw immediately” with portrait of Seale and Newton standing; slight loss at intersection of folds.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
May 1 Rally, Music, People.
New Haven, 1 May [1970]
Photocopied poster, 16¼ x 11 inches; horizontal fold, minor wear.
A poster for an event at the center of the New Haven May Day protests in 1970. The trial of Bobby Seale, Ericka Huggins and others was underway, and thousands of Panther supporters crowded into New Haven for a rally and concert. The poster promises appearances by Panther leaders Dave Hillard and Artie Seale (Bobby’s wife) as well as author Jean Genet, rock band Santana, and more. None others traced.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Revolutionary Intercommunal Day of Solidarity.
Oakland, CA, 5 March 1971
Poster, 18 x 12 inches, in green and red; folds, foxing, minor wear including slight loss at one intersection of folds.
A concert to honor political prisoners Bobby Seale, Ericka Huggins, Angela Davis, and Ruchell Magee, with music by the Grateful Dead as well as the Panther house band The Lumpen, and speaking appearances by Huey Newton and Kathleen Cleaver. Likely designed by Emory Douglas. Two other examples in OCLC. both at Yale, but in different sizes and colors; we find no others in green and red.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Black-light poster titled “Power” featuring the famous stalking panther.
Beltsville, MD: Dargis Associates, 1972
Two-color silkscreen poster, 35 x 20 inches; minimal wear including light 3-inch crease on top edge.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
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 photographs; staples rusted, moderate wear, ink doodle on one page, a bit musty.
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 on 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
$400 – $600
Black Power
(black power.) balozi zayd.
Black Warrior’s Pledge.
Poster, 22 x 17 inches; light folds, minor foxing and wear.
The poet LeRoi Jones (soon to become Amiri Baraka) founded Jihad Productions in 1967 to release music and poetry. The author of the text, also known as Balozi Harvey, was a New Jersey-based Pan-African activist and diplomat.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(black power.) [ron karenga.]
Nguzo Saba: The 7 Principles.
Color poster, 22¼ x 17 inches; minor wear and soiling.
This poster presents the seven founding principles of Kwanzaa as set forth by its founder Ron Karenga (later Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga) of the US Organization in Los Angeles. Copyright for the text is dated 1967 and credited to Karenga’s US Organization, the rivals of the Black Panthers, but this printing was done in 1969 by Amiri Baraka’s Jihad Productions. One in OCLC (at Yale), and none traced at auction.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(black power.)
Republic of New Africa organizational chart compiled by the F.B.I.
[Washington, 1969]
Printed table illustrated with 18 photographs, 9 x 16 inches; folds as issued, minimal wear.
An organizational chart of the newly formed Black nationalist group Republic of New Africa, prepared by the F.B.I. as part of a federal report on riots and civil disorders. The group asserted that Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina were subjugated territory to be liberated. The group’s founding president Robert F. Williams is shown, and his eventual successor Richard Henry (Imari Obadele) is named as head of the midwest region. Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, is shown as a former vice president. Two major figures not commonly associated with the group are named as Ministers of Culture: Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka), and Maulana Karenga (the creator of Kwanzaa and head of US Organization). Minister of Health & Welfare Audley Moore (Queen Mother Moore) was born in 1898 and provided a link to the earlier work of Marcus Garvey.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(black power.)
Newsletters and ephemera of the Black Workers Congress, a short-lived Marxist group.
Various places, 1971 and undated
16 items, various sizes, minimal wear.
Circular letter signed by Rella Brown of the Harriet Tubman Prison Movement, addressed to “Comrades,” explaining her split with the Black Workers Congress, discussing “their class nature and outlook being very petty-bourgeois. . . . We have seen a split between Malcolm X and the Muslims, Eldridge from Huey and Mao-Tse-Tung from Lin Pio, and the same phenomenon applies to revolutionary organizations . . . but my revolutionary commitment will never resign. I will continue speaking engagements, studying intensely and will develop a strong base for the defeat of the Bourgeois.” No place, 20 July 1972.
“Voice of Bethrum,” a newsletter published by the Bethlehem Revolutionary Union Movement. Volume 1, issue 3, dated 21 June 1971 (2 copies). It gives Los Angeles as its place of publication, but all of the articles seem to relate to Black and Latino employees of United States Steel in Gary, IN. Articles are dedicated to the racism of the factory’s doctor and one of its foremen. Only one issue listed in OCLC, at the University of Michigan, apparently a different issue.
“Siege: National Voice of the Black Workers Congress.” Volume 1, issue 1 [circa mid-1971].
“Point of Production: Official Organ, Black Workers Congress, Western Region.” Volume 1, issue 1, 22 September 1971, billed as the successor to “Voice of Bethrum” (2 copies)
“Manifesto of the Black Workers Congress.” 16 pages, circa December 1970 (two copies).
“Draft Proposal: Manifesto of the International Black Workers Congress.” 16 pages, photocopy, circa December 1970.
“To the Point of Production: An Interview with John Watson of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.” [1], 22, [1] pages including wrappers. San Francisco: Bay Area Radical Education Project, undated reprint of July 1969 article.
4 bumper stickers, “Bethrum, Black and Chicano Worker Power, Revolutionary Union Movement.”
4 photocopied typescript essays: “Proposed Constitution for the Black Workers Congress,” 8 pages, September 1971; “Total Control as the Only Solution to the Economic Problems of Black People,” 11 pages, undated; James Forman, “The Political Organizer is a Leader,” 5 pages, undated; “The Split in the League of Revolutionary Black Workers: Three Lines and Three Headquarters,” 30 pages, circa late 1971.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(black power.)
International Black Workers Congress draft proposal for a manifesto.
Highland Park, MI, 1971
2 pages, 17 x 11 inches; horizontal fold, minor wear.
James Forman, author of the 1969 “Black Manifesto” which called for reparations, served as the executive secretary of the International Black Workers Congress. This “draft proposal” for a manifesto was created in advance of their inaugural conference to be held in Detroit in August 1971. It features 32 objectives, 8 “1971 program objectives,” a fund-raising policy, and 6 “methods of carrying out revolutionary work.” Forman is not named here; Walter Phillips is named as the contact person. OCLC traces only one other example in this broadsheet format, plus 3 examples of a 16-page pamphlet.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(black power.)
Flag reading “In Black We Trust, United We Stand–Divided We Fall.”
No place, circa 1970s?
Flag in red, black, and green, 38 x 52 inches, embroidered with images of hands breaking shackles, and the outline of Africa; folds, minimal wear, mount remnants on top edge verso, and a bit of staining.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(black power.) george 8x stewart, artist.
Endurance.
Huntsville, AL and New York: Blackness Incorporated, circa 1975
Poster, 24 x 18 inches; minimal wear. Not examined out of modern frame (could be easily removed).
A complex pictorial poster with Angela Davis in the center, surrounded by various other figures in the black power struggle: Huey Newton, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and more, together with a quote from the Declaration of Independence and a quote from Che Guevara. Publication credits include Blackness Incorporated, Afrikan American Art Publishing Co., Mighty African Kings and Queens, Great Great Grandchildren Publishing Co., and Culture Task Force (its Southern Division in Huntsville, AL, and its Northern Division in New York). Swann sold another poster featuring this same artwork but no caption or publication credits on 10 March 2011, lot 201. We can trace no other examples of either poster at auction or in OCLC.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(black power.)
Power to the People.
No place, circa 1970
Poster, 32 x 25 inches; minor wear including two short tears in lower margin.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(black power.)
Soul Spirit.
Medina, OH: Pro Arts, 1974
Poster, 32½ x 21 inches, on paper and velvet; minor wear.
No others traced at auction, in OCLC, or elsewhere.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(black power.) zash m.j.b.
Black Power.
Medina, OH: Pro Arts, 1971
Poster, 33 x 21 inches, in dayglo red, green and black; minor wear on top edge, 2 very light horizontal folds.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(black power.)
Group of 10 black-light and dayglo posters.
Various places, 1969-1972
Most about 31 x 21 inches, a couple smaller as noted; generally minor wear.
George Stowe Jr. “Black Panther.” Los Angeles: One Stop Posters, 1972.
George Stowe Jr. “Black Pantheress.” Los Angeles: One Stop Posters, 1972.
Zash M.J.B. “Africa.” Medina, OH: Pro Arts, Inc., 1971.
Zash M.J.B. “Afro Dancer.” Medina, OH: Pro Arts, Inc., 1971 (2 copies)
“Princess I.” Stanton, CA: Graphics West, 1971.
“Soul Brother.” 21 x 16 inches, with velvet overlay. Medina, OH: Pro Arts, Inc., 1969.
“Soul Brother.” 21 x 16¾ inches. Medina, OH: Pro Arts, Inc., 1969.
Zak. “Yeah, Man, Like I Always Said, Black is Beautiful.” Atlanta, GA: Hip Soul Posters, 1970 (2 copies with slightly different coloring).
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(black power.)
The Black Nation: Position of the Revolutionary Communist League (M-L-M) on the Afro-American National Question.
[Newark, NJ?], 1974
[4], 57, [2] photocopied pages. 4to, 11 x 8½ inches, illustrated wrappers, minor wear and staining, staple-bound; signed by Amiri Baraka on front wrapper.
Amiri Baraka is not named in this work, but he signed this copy, and inscribed a different copy recently sold by Between the Covers Rare Books: “Written by Amiri Baraka in collaboration with AA Communists of RCL, 1974.” None traced at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Business
(business.)
Advertising card for the Richmond Beneficial Insurance Company.
[Richmond, VA], circa 1902-1912
Illustrated card, 4 x 6 inches; worn with moderate staining.
The Richmond Beneficial Insurance Company was founded in 1894, and quickly became a mainstay of Richmond’s important Black business district, known as Jackson Ward. Edward F. Johnson assumed the presidency of the company in 1902. This card shows their early headquarters at 728 North Second Street, before the 1912 construction of a new headquarters which remains a Richmond landmark. We trace no other examples of this card.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(business.)
Photograph of the Lane & Bradley Gin Co. in Redbird, one of Oklahoma’s all-Black towns.
Redbird, OK, circa 1910s
Photograph, 5 x 7 inches, captioned and signed by photographer L. Haynes in the negative; on possibly later plain mount; moderate wear including ½-inch chip on top edge of photograph.
Redbird, OK was one of dozens of all-Black towns which sprung up in Oklahoma in the wake of the 1889 land rush. It is one of a handful which survives today. An agricultural community, its population peaked at 336 in 1920.
Iverson W. Lane (circa 1867-1952) came to Redbird in 1908, but in 1934 was denied the right to vote. His case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which struck down Oklahoma’s discriminatory voting law in Lane v. Wilson. He and Solomon B. “Saub” Bradley were partners in two cotton gins, a grain elevator, and a general store. Here we see about a dozen workers and customers at the gin, most or all of them apparently Black, with bales of cotton awaiting processing.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(business.) f.a. mccoo.
Say it with Pictures: Achievements of the Negro in Chicago.
Chicago: F.A. McCoo, 1933
Numerous illustrations. 70, [2] pages including wrappers. Original illustrated wrappers, 12 x 9 inches, minor wear and moderate soiling; minimal dampstaining, a bit musty; inscribed on the verso of the title page “To C.A. Barnett, F.A. McCoo.”
A pictorial “Who’s Who” of Chicago’s leading Black citizens, clubs, and businesses. Making a surprise appearance is baseball great Babe Ruth, shown with baseball memorabilia engraver Clarence Wadley. 2 in OCLC and none traced at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(business.)
Illinois and Chicago Invite You to American Negro Exposition, Celebrating 75 Years of Negro Achievement.
Chicago, 1940
Illustrated brochure, 8 panels of 9 x 4 inches on one folding sheet; short separations at folds, one director’s name circled in pencil, other minor wear and dampstaining.
A promotional piece for a major event celebrating the 75th anniversary of Emancipation with what is billed as “the first real Negro World’s Fair in all history.” This brochure was produced to attract private exhibitors: “This is an unequalled opportunity for commercial firms to make private exhibits appealing directly to the Negro Public.” See also lots 83, 84 and 265 for more on the exposition.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(business.)
Photograph of the Boyd and Miller Barber Shop.
Hammond, LA?, probably May 1941
Photograph, 5 x 7 inches, captioned in the negative; moderate wear.
Two barbers stand by two customers in their chairs, with four other customers waiting for service in the background. Two handwritten signs explain “Full haircut 35¢, shave 15” and “No credit.”
In the background is a poster for an upcoming baseball game between the “N.O. St. Louis Stars” and the Jacksonville Redcaps, placing the date of the photograph not long before Friday, 9 May 1941. The two teams faced off for opening day of the Negro American League two days later in New Orleans, so this must have been an exhibition game. The location of the game was at Hammond Ball Park, probably in Hammond, LA near New Orleans.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(business.)
Promotional materials for Blass Park and Bell’s Idlewild in Michigan.
Baldwin, MI, 1926
3 items as described, with original mailing envelope.
Idlewild, in the woods of northern Michigan, was founded in 1912 and soon became one of the nation’s first great Black resort towns. Early property owners included Madam C.J. Walker and W.E.B. Du Bos. Offered here are early promotional materials from the idlewild area.
Autograph Letter Signed from William Bell to W.H. Howard of Shreveport, LA, on “Bell’s Idlewild” letterhead: “Idlewild is the real place for the colored people, a town that is own and controlled by the Race and we need more good men and women to help us to make a city out of it.” Chicago, 11 March 1926.
Illustrated leaflet for “Blass the Land Man, Five Acre Tracts near Idlewild,” by George Blass of Baldwin, MI, with plat map on verso.
Illustrated tri-fold brochure, “Growing a House on the Farm . . . Blass the Land Man’s Five Acre Tracts Near Idlewild.”
Estimate
$500 – $750
(business.)
Promotional ephemera from the Woodland Park development in central Michigan.
Chicago, 1943
6 items plus original envelope, as described.
Woodland Park in northern Michigan was founded in 1921, inspired by the resort success of Idlewild fifteen miles to the north (see lot 169). This lot includes:
Promotional form letter from Woodland Park Inland Lakes Inc. describing forest trails, a well-stocked fishing lake, and neighbors who are “your kind of people,” and adding in type: “You ask whether colored people can live in Woodland Park. Woodland Park is reserved exclusively for colored people. Thousands of them already own property there and they come from all over the country.” Chicago, 16 November 1943.
“How Would You Like to Put Your Name on the Mailbox / Woodland Park Invites You. Only $5 Down.” Double-sized color poster / brochure, 21 x 16 inches on newsprint; short separations at folds.
4 copies of the order form, 8¼ x 5¼ inches. Buyers could choose land which is “flat” or “rolling,” and with many, few, or no trees.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(business.)
We Offer for Sale to Colored People in Monk’s Additions, Pine Bluff’s Largest and Best Colored Section.
Pine Bluff, AR, circa 1940s
Double-sided handbill, 11 x 8¼ inches; minor wear.
Flier for real estate advertised by J.W. Monk of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Boasts of several nearby factories, electric lights and gas, and “two paved streets.” An order form is printed on verso.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(business.)
Promotional packet for a new development at Mizpah, New Jersey.
Philadelphia, 1947
3 items, as described.
Mizpah was originally founded as a Jewish settlement and then pivoted toward the Black real estate market. Includes:
Typed letter from N. Rathblott & Sons to Rev. W.H. Howard of Shreveport, LA: “Since you are a minister I need no introduction to you. You, as a leader naturally would know these leaders whose names and photographs appear in our booklets.” Philadelphia, 24 June 1947.
“The Eyes of the World Have Turned Toward Mizpah, New Jersey.” 8-page illustrated booklet, 11 x 8¼ inches; mailing folds, minimal wear, a bit of rust at staples. Includes numerous photographs of Black civil and religious leaders who have settled in Mizpah or endorsed the project. None traced in OCLC.
“Application for Homesites” slip, 3½x 8½ inches.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(business.) don gilbert, editor.
Dallas, Texas Negro City Directory, 1947-1948.
Dallas, TX, 1947
356 pages. 4to, publisher’s cloth, minor wear; minimal wear to contents; 1949 gift inscription on front free endpaper.
Pages 33 to 73 are largely devoted to historical essays and profiles of important local institutions, especially the city’s Black churches and colleges. Among the notable listed residents is activist and Housing and Urban Development leader A. Maceo Smith (page 276). The volume includes many pages of advertisements (quite a few illustrated) and a business directory at the end.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(business.)
Certificate of membership for the Midland Negro Chamber of Commerce.
Midland, TX, 1957
Illustrated certificate, 8½ x 11 inches, with embossed seal, completed in manuscript for member James Moore, and signed by officers C.L. Brown and Bryant Cornelius; minor foxing and minimal wear.
Midland is in the heart of the oil-rich Permian Basin in western Texas. This certificate’s illustration is a landscape filled with oil derricks and a gusher at center.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(business.)
Black and Brown Stamp Album, with a promotional flier.
San Francisco, CA: Black & Brown Trading Stamp Association, [1969]
[48] printed pages, with a block of 6 unused James Brown stamps laid in, and 14 additional stamps pasted in. Original color pictorial wrappers, oblong 12mo (5 x 6¼ inches), worn with wrappers detached, cello tape repair.
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.
WITH–promotional flier, 11 x 8½ inches, folds and wear: “You Must Have a Filled Black and Brown Stamp Album to See Our Community Prosper.” Notes that 20% of profits go to “scholarships, research.” Also promotes a James Brown concert at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, 20 July 1969. While the album is seen on the market, we have not encountered this flier before.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(business.)
Pennant for “Black Expo 71.”
[Chicago?], 1971
Felt pennant, 6¾ x 20¼ inches, printed in yellow on black, with logo of a fist clenching arrows tipped with dollar signs, reading “Toward Independence: Economic, Cultural, Political”; vertical fold, light wear.
This Chicago exposition was organized by Operation Breadbasket, an arm of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In a 26 September 1971 interview with the New York Daily News, co-organizer Percy Sutton (the Manhattan borough president) explained that “Black people have learned that they cannot move America only by praying, demonstrating, sitting-in, and in the courts. Therefore, they are now focusing their attention on economics and politics.” According to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, head of Operation Breadbasket, “Black and minority economic, cultural, and political awareness and independence is the overriding goal of Black Expo ‘71”–echoing the language on this pennant. None others traced at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Civil Rights — Jack Greenberg Collection
Columbia Law School diploma issued to the famed civil rights attorney Jack Greenberg, signed by President Eisenhower.
New York, 4 October 1948
Document Signed by Dwight D. Eisenhower as university president and Young B. Smith as dean of the Columbia Law School, illustrated with a printed Columbia seal. One page, 10 x 11¾ inches; very faint horizontal fold, minimal toning and fading.
Jack Greenberg (1924-2016) received his Bachelor of Laws degree from Columbia in 1948, and the following year joined the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund as its only white counsel. Working under the fund’s founder Thurgood Marshall, he helped argue numerous civil rights cases before the Supreme Court and elsewhere, most notably Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. In 1961, when Marshall became a federal judge, Greenberg assumed the leadership of the Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he continued to play a key role in the civil rights movement’s legal efforts for 23 more years. After 1984, he served as a dean and professor at Columbia, and in 2003 was named as #16 on the list of the 250 greatest Columbia alumni of all time. Provenance: This lot, and the following ten lots, are consigned by Greenberg’s adopted son William Cole.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Briefing book for Brown v. Board of Education, the personal copy of one of the key attorneys.
New York: Supreme Printing Co., 1953
[2], xxxii, 235 pages. 8vo, original wrappers, minor foxing and minimal wear; minimal wear to contents; signed on front wrapper by Jack Greenberg.
The introduction by Arthur Spingarn describes this as “a reprint of the brief which was filed in the United States Supreme Court, pursuant to an order of that court setting the school segregation cases down for reargument.” Its proper title is “Brief for appellants in nos. 1, 2 and 4 and for respondents in no. 10 on reargument in the Supreme Court of the United States, October term, 1953.” Provenance: property of lawyer Jack Greenberg of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who was the last surviving co-counsel in the case, and later headed the organization from 1961 to 1984; and consigned by his adopted son William Cole.
Estimate
$600 – $900
eleanor roosevelt.
Letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to Thurgood Marshall.
New York, 12 November 1954
Letter Signed to Thurgood Marshall, docketed “tm” in manuscript, with inked date stamp. One page, 7 x 6 inches; mailing folds, minimal wear, faint paper clip imprint. With original stamped envelope.
Eleanor Roosevelt pressed for anti-lynching legislation during the presidency of her husband Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She was a longtime member of the NAACP, and joined its board of directors in 1945. In that capacity, she came to know the head of its Legal Defense Fund, Thurgood Marshall. This letter was written in response to his birthday greeting: “Thanks so much for your very thoughtful message which I received on the occasion of my seventieth birthday. Your good wishes added greatly to the event, and I was happy to hear from you.” Provenance: William Cole, adopted son of Marshall’s Legal Defense Fund successor Jack Greenberg.
Estimate
$600 – $900
j. edgar hoover.
Letter defending the FBI’s civil rights record in the wake of the Emmett Till lynching.
Washington, 30 September 1955
Letter Signed as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Thurgood Marshall. 3 typed pages, 10½ x 7¾ inches; mailing folds, two punch holes in upper margins, inked date stamp.
This letter was written in the context of the Emmett Till lynching, which had just taken place on 28 August. On 25 September, civil rights leader Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard addressed a meeting of the Baltimore NAACP regarding the lynching and other recent killings, wondering why “Southern investigators of the FBI can’t seem to solve a crime where a Negro is involved,” and demanding that national leaders including “J. Edgar Hoover himself” be called to account for these failings in a public forum.
This inspired Hoover to write to Thurgood Marshall, who was then the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, “to set the record straight.” Hoover and Marshall had a well-known working relationship which approached something like a friendship.
Hoover’s reputation for intimidation and anti-Communist paranoia is not on display in this letter. Instead, Hoover explains the chain of command between his FBI and the Department of Justice, notes that he had no jurisdiction in the Till case, and describes at length two recent cases where the FBI succeeded in bringing Ku Klux Klan chapters to trial. He also implies credit for a dramatic reduction in lynchings over the past decade from 65 to 16, and notes that the nation had seen no lynchings in 1952, 1953, or 1954. He asks Marshall, given his greater understanding of the FBI’s role in these investigations, to issue a public correction on behalf of the NAACP to Howard’s anti-FBI charges.
Accompanying this letter is a 24 September 2004 letter by Jack Greenberg, who worked under Marshall with the Legal Defense Fund, and later succeeded him as its head. In Greenberg’s analysis of Hoover’s letter, he recounts several of the prominent cases of that period including the Till case, and adds that “the civil rights community . . . believed that the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as the FBI, was doing hardly anything to put an end to that violence.” Greenberg appended photocopies of 3 related Hoover letters at the Library of Congress dated 6 September, 13 September, and 11 October 1955. Writing to a White House official, Hoover dropped his veneer of gentle persuasion and reported his findings that the Emmett Till protests were a Communist plot to create unrest. Greenberg points out Hoover’s “unintentionally comic references to the Marcus Garvey ‘Back-to-Africa’ movement that could have no conceivable relevance to any of the events and issues of the mid-twentieth century.” Provenance: Greenberg’s adopted son William Cole, who discusses it in his book “A Jack Greenberg Lexicon,” pages 108-9.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
thurgood marshall.
Photograph inscribed to his successor at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
No place, circa 1961
Photograph, 9 x 7 inches to sight, inscribed in the mat “To Jack Greenberg, The finest successor any man ever had, Thurgood Marshall”; minimal wear. Not examined out of original frame.
Thurgood Marshall first came to national prominence in 1940 as the founder and executive director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In this role, he litigated Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, with fellow NAACP lawyer Jack Greenberg (1924-2016) as his co-counsel. In 1961, Marshall stepped down from the Legal Defense Fund to accept a position as a federal judge, and Greenberg followed in his footsteps as the new executive director. Marshall inscribed this portrait to Greenberg at the time he stepped down. Although the two had worked very closely together, they had minimal contact after 1961, as Marshall avoided socializing with any of his old legal colleagues to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest. This photograph hung in Greenberg’s Legal Defense Fund office for 23 years, and then at his Columbia office until his retirement. It was said to be “perhaps the only material object he valued for sentimental reasons.” It is described in William Cole’s “A Jack Greenberg Lexicon,” page 132. Provenance: consigned by Jack Greenberg’s adopted son William Cole.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,500
martin luther king.
Why We Can’t Wait,
New York: Harper & Row, [1964]
inscribed warmly to famed civil rights lawyer Jack Greenberg. 4 leaves of photographs. xii, [2], 178 pages. 8vo, publisher’s cloth-backed boards, minimal wear; minimal wear to contents, pencil marks on 7 pages; inscribed on front free endpaper by King. In original dust jacket with minor wear.
First edition of King’s reflections on his 1963 Birmingham campaign, including the text of his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” He inscribed this copy “to my good friend Jack Greenberg, in appreciation for tremendous legal ability, your genuine humanitarian concern, and your unswerving devotion to the principles of freedom and justice, Martin.”
Jack Greenberg (1924-2016) was the longtime head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which provided legal assistance to Dr. King on a regular basis, including on the Birmingham campaign. As King recounts in Why We Can’t Wait, after Birmingham’s school system had suspended more than a thousand demonstrators from their schools, on 22 May 1963, “we decided to take the issue into the courts and did so, through the auspices of the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Educational Fund. . . . The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals . . . strongly condemned the Board of Education for its action. . . . It was a jubilant moment, another victory in the titanic struggle. The following day, in an appropriate postscript, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor and his fellow commissioners out of office, once and for all” (pages 115-116). Greenberg and the Legal Defense Fund represented King while he was in the Birmingham Jail and helped secure his release. A year after Why We Can’t Wait was published, Greenberg and three Legal Defense Fund colleagues drafted the route for the famed march from Selma to Montgomery and filed the plan with the State of Alabama.
Provenance: consigned by Jack Greenberg’s adopted son William Cole.
Estimate
$20,000 – $30,000
Set of 3 Civil Rights Law Institutes training binders.
No place: NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, circa 1964
viii, 375; vi, 377-723; xi, 426 pages. 3 volumes. 8vo (9¼ x 6 inches), in plain 3-ring binders, minimal wear; first title page detached with moderate wear, otherwise minimal wear to contents; pencil signature “J Greenberg” to title pages of first two binders.
The Civil Rights Law Institutes were held by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund from at least 1964 to 1968 as weekend training conferences for civil rights lawyers. These binders codified effective legal strategies for moving civil rights cases through the courts, and were perhaps the first systematic effort toward a methodology of civil rights litigation. They have introductions by Legal Defense Fund head Jack Greenberg.
The first two binders are titled “Civil Rights Law Institutes: Cases and Materials.” Greenberg credits their preparation to a team of distinguished law professors such as Marvin Frankel, Louis Henkin, Louis Pollak, Anthony Amsterdam, and more. The third binder is credited solely to Anthony G. Amsterdam, titled “The Defensive Transfer of Civil Rights Litigation from State to Federal Courts.” It is complete with “Volume I” and “Volume II” in one binder. The binder is undated, but this institute was discussed in the 16 December 1964 issue of the Lake Charles (LA) American-Press. It traces strategies for getting cases into federal courts where they would receive a fairer hearing and have broader impact. While some copies of these binders have been preserved in libraries, we trace none at auction. Provenance: the personal copies of Jack Greenberg, and consigned by his adopted son William Cole.
Estimate
$600 – $900
james meredith.
Three Years in Mississippi,
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, [1966]
inscribed to Jack Greenberg. [8], 328 pages. 8vo, publisher’s cloth, minimal wear; minimal wear to contents; warmly inscribed on the front free endpaper by the author to Jack and Sema Greenberg. In original pictorial dust jacket with minor wear.
First edition. Meredith tells the story of how he became the first Black student at the heavily segregated University of Mississippi in 1962.
In 1961, Jack Greenberg assumed leadership of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund from Thurgood Marshall, not long after James Meredith initiated his legal battle to gain entrance to the University of Mississippi. Along with Constance Baker Motley, he worked to secure Meredith’s admission and encouraged him to continue his studies. He and Motley can be seen accompanying Meredith at the university in 1962 newsreel footage, and is mentioned several times in Meredith’s account of the ordeal.
Meredith inscribed this copy of his memoir to Greenberg and his wife: “To Jack & Sema, I want to present this book to you as part payment for all that you have done and are doing to make this world a better place in which to live. In many many ways my life would not have been the same if there had not been a Jack and Sema Greenberg, and your view of the world had not been as it is. You are truly wonderful people and I want to thank you for it. Sincerely yours, JH Meredith, 30 May 1966.”
Provenance: consigned by Greenberg’s adopted son William Cole.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
alice walker.
Revolutionary Petunias & Other Poems,
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, [1973]
inscribed to Jack Greenberg. [10], 70 pages. 8vo, publisher’s cloth, minimal wear; minimal wear to contents; signed and inscribed on half-title page. In original illustrated dust jacket with minor soiling and minimal wear.
First edition of Walker’s third book, inscribed “For Jack Greenberg, long in the storm. Sincerely, Alice Walker 2-26-73.” Jack Greenberg was the longtime head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where one of his colleagues was Walker’s first husband Melvyn Leventhal. Walker and Leventhal were the first legally-married interracial couple in Mississippi. Provenance: consigned by Greenberg’s adopted son William Cole.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Oral history with civil rights attorney Jack Greenberg.
[New York], 1977
[3], 406 unbound typescript carbon sheets, 11 x 8½ inches, with numerous pencil corrections in Greenberg’s hand; minimal wear. Housed in original Sphinx Business Papers box with minor wear. With the 9 June 1977 transmittal letter from Columbia University to Greenberg.
A transcript of a series of interviews with Jack Greenberg (1924-2016) in the midst of his celebrated 23-year stint as head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The interviews were done in 1974 and 1975 by Kitty Gellhorn of the Oral History Research Office of Greenberg’s alma mater, Columbia University. His early life is discussed through page 37, his time at Columbia (undergraduate and law school) and World War Two through page 86, and the bulk of the remainder is dedicated to his work with the Legal Defense Fund. A personal name index at the end notes multiple references to Angela Davis, Martin Luther King, James Meredith, Lyndon B. Johnson, and especially his mentor Thurgood Marshall. For example, on page 280 he recalls asking President Johnson in person to appoint better judges to federal courts in the South. Johnson promised to do so, and then actually followed through, vetting his appointments with civil rights leadership. This typescript was one of only 4 copies, with the other 3 being filed at Columbia with strict access restrictions. It is the only one with Greenberg’s manuscript corrections, which were transcribed by a clerk into the copies retained by Columbia. Provenance: consigned by Greenberg’s adopted son William Cole.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Presidential Citizens Medal certificate awarded to longtime civil rights attorney Jack Greenberg by President Clinton.
Washington, 8 January 2001
Partly-printed calligraphic document with autopen signature of “William J. Clinton” as president. One page, 11 x 14 inches; in original condition. In original plain morocco folder with minimal wear.
Greenberg was the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund from 1961 to 1984. This commendation reads “In the courtroom and the classroom, Jack Greenberg has been a crusader for freedom and equality for more than half a century. Arguing 40 civil rights cases before the United States Supreme Court, including the historic Brown v. Board of Education, he helped break down the legal underpinnings of desegregation in America, and . . . has helped shape a more just society.”
You may note an amusing error in the text. Greenberg devoted his career to fighting segregation, not desegregation. Greenberg requested a corrected certificate from Clinton’s office, but with only 12 days remaining before the changing of the guard to the Bush administration, time was simply too short. William Cole’s “A Jack Greenberg Lexicon,” pages 155-7. Provenance: Greenberg’s adopted son William Cole.
Estimate
$300 – $400
Civil Rights
(civil rights–segregation.)
Blueprint for the “Colored Waiting Room” signs of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad.
Galveston, TX, 1906
Blueprint, 26½ x 34 inches; faded, formerly rolled, minimal dampstaining on bottom edge, minimal wear.
The railroad provided service between Santa Fe, NM and Galveston, TX, connecting many smaller Texas towns to the state’s largest port city. This blueprint was created to standardize their signage; it is captioned “Standard Depot Details, Letters for Depot Gables, Bulletin Board and Waiting Room Signs.”
Some of the company’s stations were apparently unsegregated (perhaps in New Mexico?), so a simple “Waiting Room” sign would do. For the segregated stations in Texas, the lettering of the “White Waiting Room” and “Colored Waiting Room” signs is specified, each with the line’s distinctive “Santa Fe” logo. The exact paint for background and lettering is specified in a memo.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(civil rights–segregation.)
“For Colored / For Whites” sign for a segregated bus or trolley.
Texas?, circa 1940s
Lacquered wood sign with painted lettering and metal mounting bracket, 3½ x 9 inches; moderate wear and soiling.
The sign was designed to be inserted into a holder in the wall of the bus, designating the dividing line between the races. It could be easily moved in reaction to the day’s traffic. Provenance: found in an antique shop in Galveston, TX.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Equality: Dinner Given at the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt to Booker T. Washington.
Chicago: C.H. Thomas & P.H. Lacey / Royal Picture Gallery, 1903
Print, 14 x 18 inches, on white coated stock; mounted on early board, light vertical crease, moderate dampstaining.
Booker T. Washington dined at the White House with President Theodore Roosevelt on 17 October 1901. This print was produced to celebrate the historic occasion. This was apparently the only project of the Royal Picture Gallery of Chicago. They took out classified ads in several newspapers across the country, such as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on 24 January 1904, seeking sales agents for “our copyrighted equality picture . . . quick sellers; big profits; can be sold at sight in every colored household.”
You might think this print is non-controversial, but then you would be wrong. One of the print’s salesmen in Mississippi was the subject of an outraged letter printed in the Jackson Daily News on 11 March 1904: “To the Royal Picture Gallery Company: I say that, if you be the real authors of this work, if we came to your places, hung every one of you as high as Haman and guarded your hanging carcasses until the carrion birds had eaten them, we would still be in debt to you for rougher usage. To Booker Washington, because of this example, the world and the negro would have been better off if you had never been born. It offsets all your other work.” The police in Vicksburg, MS were on the hunt to arrest salesmen of this image because it “appealed to race prejudice,” according to the Vicksburg Herald of 8 April 1904. The active censorship apparently had a strong effect. Today, none of these widely distributed prints are traced in the international library database OCLC.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
National League on Urban Conditions among Negroes, Report 1910-1911.
No place, [circa November 1911]
35 pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers, minimal wear.
The founding report of what became the National Urban League.
This organization was founded in October 1911 as a merger between three existing civil rights organizations (it assumed its present National Urban League name in 1920). This report describes the joining of the three organizations, and offers a “plan of work” for 1912, most notably “constructive and preventative social work for improving the social and economic conditions among Negroes in urban centers.” The sociologist George Edmund Haynes is named as the organization’s first director. Reports and budgets for the three constituent organizations are also included. As the report is prefaced by a 28 October 1911 quotation and mentions plans for an upcoming 4 December conference of social workers, it was likely printed in November 1911. None others traced at auction, and none identified in OCLC, although one might still be found in a run of Urban League reports.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
n.a.a.c.p.
Program of the Fifth Annual Conference.
Philadelphia, 23 April 1913
4 pages, 9 x 6 inches, on one folding sheet; vertical fold, moderate wear.
W.E.B. Du Bois is named as the speaker on two panels, and as the Director of Publicity and Research. This conference was early in the life of the N.A.A.C.P. We can trace no other examples of this year’s conference program, and little coverage of the conference in the newspapers, other than a long report in the Denver Star of 26 April 1913.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Stop the Ku Klux Propaganda in New York.
New York: NAACP, [May 1921]
Letterpress broadside, 13¾ x 9 inches; horizontal fold, 1¼-inch repaired chip along left margin.
The film “Birth of a Nation” was screened at a New York theater on 6 May 1921. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was on hand to picket and distribute these fliers, which exposed the film as Ku Klux Klan propaganda. It details some recent Klan atrocities, and asks “Do you know that the Ku Klux Klan is not only anti-Negro but anti-Jewish and anti-Catholic? Are you going to allow Ku Klux Klan propaganda to be displayed in the movies in New York City?”
At the protest, 5 NAACP volunteers were convicted on trumped-up littering charges for distributing these fliers: Helen Curtis, widow of the former United States minister to Liberia; noted activist and NAACP founding member Kathryn Magnolia Johnson; World War One veteran (and future noted sociologist) Edward Franklin Frazier; veteran sailor Llewelyn Rollock (in uniform); and his sister-in-law Laura Jean Rollock, who had also served overseas in the YWCA. See Adriane Lentz-Smith, “Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I,” page 213.
The charges were reversed six months later, as reported by James Weldon Johnson in the New York Age of 12 November 1921. He described the ruling as “a great victory . . . for all liberal and radical bodies in the city of New York.”
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
henry lee moon.
The Crisis in Negro Leadership.
No place, circa late 1933
7 typescript carbon pages; brittl, minor edge wear, more to last page but not affecting text.
The journalist Henry Lee Moon (1901-1985) was a Howard University graduate who began writing for the Amsterdam News in 1931. This essay was, as far as we know, never published. It was written in the wake of the 1933 split between the NAACP and W.E.B. Du Bois, and traces the recent history of Black leadership, from the frictions between Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, to the fading influence of Marcus Garvey, to the failure of socialism and communism to make substantial inroads into the Black community. His conclusions are sympathetic toward socialism: “The Negro’s way out is the way of all labor–the socialization of industry and the resulting abolition of the competitive system upon which race hatreds flourish.”
Estimate
$300 – $400
jesse o. thomas.
Negro Participation in the Texas Centennial Exposition.
Boston: Christopher Publishing House, [1938]
9 plates. 154 pages. 8vo, publisher’s gilt cloth, minimal wear; minimal wear to contents; in illustrated dust jacket, minimal wear, a bit of staining to backstrip; signed and inscribed by the author on front free endpaper.
A detailed account of the creation of the Hall of Negro Life at the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition, as told by its general manager Jesse Thomas of the National Urban League. It features photographs of several exhibits, including a mural by Aaron Douglas (discussed on pages 25-27). The exhibit was dedicated on 19 June 1936 in commemoration of Juneteenth, and received rave reviews from attendees and the press, to the extent that it substantially improved race relations in Dallas. The appointment of the first Black policemen to the city’s force is attributed to the policemen’s convention held at the Hall (pages 89-90). Not in Blockson or Afro-Americana.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
zora neale hurston.
“My Most Humiliating Jim Crow Experience,”
Chicago, June 1944
in an issue of the Negro Digest, pages 25-26. 98, [2] pages including wrappers. 8vo, original color wrappers, minor wear, with subscription card bound in; minimal dampstaining.
First appearance of a short essay by the renowned novelist and anthropologist, in which she recounts a visit to a white New York gastroenterologist who gave her a cursory examination in the supply closet of his opulent office. The essay has been frequently reprinted in collections on Black access to health care, and of Hurston’s work. The issue also features an essay by Langston Hughes, “Down Under in Harlem,” pages 7-9.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Membership card for the World War Two-era “National March on Washington Movement.”
New York, July 1945
Printed card, 2½ x 4 inches, completed in type for Joe C. Brown of Chicago, with stamped signature of A. Philip Randolph as director; light horizontal crease.
Not to be confused with the more famous 1963 March on Washington, this organization was founded in 1941 by labor leader A. Philip Randolph to protest segregation in the military and in defense industries. The pledge on the back of this card balances patriotism and aggressive activism: “I support and endorse the fight of the United Nations to wipe out the Axis menace. . . . I support a non-violent but direct struggle by the Negro people to abolish segregation. . . . I am not anti-white but I believe that Negroes should initiate the campaign to win their unconditional equality of status for themselves. I will work for a Free Africa and a Free Caribbean.” No related materials traced at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Morrison Betrays White Race! Mayor of New Orleans Gives Negroes Equal Political and Social Rights.
New Orleans, LA: White League of Louisiana, [January 1950]
Illustrated broadside, 17 x 11 inches, on newsprint; folds, two ¼-inch chips.
deLesseps Story “Chep” Morrison (1912-1964) served as a white Democratic mayor of New Orleans from 1946 to 1961. This poster was produced from a segregationist perspective in reaction to his 1950 re-election campaign, warning that he had integrated the city’s auditorium and was allowing Black residents to register to vote.
This poster was probably not very effective for white supremacist purposes, as it inevitably circulated in the Black press; the Pittsburgh Courier reproduced it on 28 January 1950. The sub-headlines would have all played well in the Black community: “Mayor of New Orleans Gives Negroes Equal Political and Social Rights”; “Negroes to be Placed on Police Force”; “Auditorium to become Negro Pleasure Set”; “National Negro Paper Hails Morrison.” The large reproduction of the state’s Reconstruction-era legislature would certainly evoke nostalgia among Black voters as well. Morrison did indeed win re-election, and did indeed integrate the police force that year. This poster might make you think he was a visionary crusader for civil rights, but he later spoke in favor of segregation in 1959. None in OCLC, none traced at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
olive arnold adams.
Time Bomb: Mississippi Exposed, and the Full Story of Emmett Till.
[New York: Mississippi Regional Council of Negro Leadership, 1956]
38 pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers, minor wear and staining, detached from text; minimal wear to contents.
The author Olive Arnold Adams (1912-2016) was a Black journalist whose husband Julius Adams edited New York’s Amsterdam News. This powerful account of the Till murder was released just two weeks after the January 1956 Look Magazine story which brought national attention to the case. Adams uncovered new witnesses who were not noted in the Look article.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Group of press photos of the Little Rock school integration struggle.
Little Rock, AR, 1957-1963
Wire photographs, most about 8 x 10 inches, a few smaller, with various inked stamps, captions, and clippings on verso; minor wear.
19 of these images date from the September 1957 effort to integrate the public schools in Little Rock, including one showing the renowned local NAACP leader Daisy Bates in court to press the legal side of the case. Also included are 5 photographs from the following years: one showing an empty classroom in 1958, and two more upbeat images showing the smiling first white student in McAlmont Elementary in 1963.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
jim peck, editor.
Sit Ins: The Students Report.
New York: Congress of Racial Equality, May 1960
Numerous illustrations. 16 pages. 8vo, self-wrappers; minor dampstaining, vertical fold, a bit of rust at staples.
Six high school and college students describe their experiences in the lunch counter sit-in movement. None traced at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
[jimmie mcdonald, compiler.]
CORE Sit-In Songs.
New York, [1961]
[2], 21, [1] pages including wrappers. 8vo, original illustrated wrappers, minor foxing, a bit of rust at staples; light fold through first 4 leaves.
The compiler James Allen “Jimmie” McDonald (1937-2014) was a Black gospel singer and Freedom Rider who contributed 4 of his own songs to this compilation. Others range from Woody Guthrie (“This Land is Your Land”) to Bach to Leadbelly, as well as spiritual standards such as “We Shall Overcome.” “Fight On” was “written April 1960 by Barbara Broxton, Patricia and Priscilla Stephens while serving 49 days in the Leon County Jail for sitting in at a Woolworth lunch counter.” The cover art shows four bars of music, with lunch counter stools in place of notes. The songs are lyrics only, with no music. The pamphlet is undated, but its publication is noted in the 29 May 1961 issue of the Monroe (LA) News-Star.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Boy-Cott Stag Beer . . . Don’t Drink Segregation–Fight It!
[Memphis, TN], circa early 1960s
Handbill, 8¾ x 6 inches; age toning, minimal wear.
Names a Memphis beer distributor: “A.S. Barboro Dist. of Stag Beer has about twenty Beer Trucks Rolling Everyday. We should have about Ten Negro Salesmen on some of these Trucks. . . . We must start with someone to show them that we mean business. Ramdown the walls.” The flier is credited to “N.A.P.A.”
Estimate
$300 – $400
Join the March for Freedom! Join the NAACP Now!
Chicago: Midwest Decalcomania, circa early 1960s
Sticker, 7½ x 4½ inches, with detailed application instructions on verso; minimal wear, though we can’t guarantee it will still stick.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Chartered train ticket from Philadelphia to the March on Washington.
Philadelphia, 28 August 1963
Unused printed ticket coupon, 2 x 5½ inches, with attached stub, stamped #984; minimal wear.
This “identification card” was marked “not good for passage” but would have been exchanged for a proper ticket. The chartered Pennsylvania Railroad train left Philadelphia at 6:40 on the morning of the march, and then left Washington at 7:50 that night. No other examples traced.
Estimate
$600 – $900
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: introduction leaf, contents leaf, and five collage prints by Lo Monaco; moderate wear to the portfolio fore-edge, light wrinkle to contents.
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, and Whitney M. Young Jr.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
danny lyon; photographer.
Now.
Atlanta, GA: Lincoln Lithograph Company, circa 1963
Poster, 22 x 13¾ inches; moderate restoration including 2 short closed tears and ½ inch of upper corners restored, laid down on linen.
One of a series of five Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee posters featuring the work of important civil rights photographer Danny Lyon. It depicts participants in the March on Washington, 28 August 1963.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
Group of 17 press photographs of Myrlie Evers and other Medgar Evers family members.
Various places, 1962-1970
Wire photographs, most about 8 x 10 inches but a few much smaller, with various inked stamps, captions, and clippings on verso; a few cropped or with crop marks and retouching.
Medgar Evers is shown in one 1962 portrait. Most were taken of his widow at his 1963 funeral or at the 1964 trial of his assassin. In one she is flanked by Charles Evers and James Meredith (illustrated). Two date from her 1970 Congressional campaign in California.
Estimate
$500 – $750
bobbi and frank cieciorka.
Negroes in American History: A Freedom Primer.
Atlanta, GA: Student Voice, 1966
[8], 63 pages. 4to, 10¼ x 8¼ inches, original illustrated wrappers, minor wear and toning; printed slightly out of alignment with occasional printer’s offsetting.
Revised second edition. This illustrated introduction to Black history for children was created for use in the informal freedom schools that sprung up in Mississippi and elsewhere in 1964. The co-author and illustrator Frank Cieciorka, a white man, had been an organizer during the Freedom Summer voter registration drive in 1964. His New York Times obituary of 27 November 2008 credits him with introducing the image of a raised fist (as seen on the cover of this booklet) as an iconic symbol of modern protest movements. None of any edition traced at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
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
$600 – $900
Group of 12 press photographs from clashes in California.
Various places, 1964-1969
Wire photographs, each about 8 x 10 inches, with various inked stamps, captions, and clippings on verso; some toned, some with crop marks or inked notes on recto.
Three of the photographs show CORE picketers at the 1964 Republican Convention in San Francisco. Two show the aftermath of the 8 December 1969 raid on the Los Angeles Black Panther headquarters, considered to be the first SWAT team raid in history, in which more than five thousand rounds of ammunition were fired. One shows a Panther being led to a police car in front of the headquarters, while another displays the cache of weapons seized in the raid. Also shown are a February 1969 demonstration at a Richmond, CA oil refinery; policemen returning fire against a sniper in San Francisco’s Fillmore district in October 1968; and more.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Press photo of Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier bailing James Forman and John Lewis out of jail.
New York, 22 March 1966
Wire photo, 7 x 9 inches, with inked newspaper stamp and sticker on verso; Poitier’s name circled in ink, minimal wear.
James Forman and John Lewis (left), then the leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, had occupied the South African consulate in New York to protest apartheid, and had been arrested for disorderly conduct. Two celebrity supporters, Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier, are shown leaving Criminal Court with them after posting bond.
Even if you knew nothing about the four men involved, you could probably guess which two were internationally famous film stars, and which two were young activists still learning how to handle the camera’s gaze.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Group of 33 press photos of New Jersey riots and uprisings, including Newark.
Various places, 1964-1970
Wire photographs, about 8 x 10 inches, with various inked stamps, captions, and clippings on verso; some toned, minor wear.
Several New Jersey riots and uprisings are documented, including 8 photographs of Jersey City and Paterson in August 1964; 8 from the famed Newark uprising of July 1967; and 11 from Asbury Park in July 1970. One shot of Newark has a clear plastic overlay reading “Rumor: Sometimes It Creates Disaster.” The initial protests were triggered by rumors that a Black cabdriver had been killed by police–although he had indeed been severely beaten.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Group of images from Life Magazine’s coverage of the Newark riots.
[Newark, NJ, July 1967]
3 black and white photographs, each about 14 x 10½ inches; minimal wear; inked Life Magazine credit stamps on verso completed in manuscript.
These photographs were taken during the Newark riots of 12 to 17 July 1967, for use in the Life Magazine issue of 28 July 1967, titled “Shooting War in the Streets. Newark: The Predictable Insurrection.” One is a Bud Lee photograph of a 12-year-old boy named Joe Bass bleeding on the street from a crossfire shotgun wound (published on page 23, a variant of the magazine’s haunting and controversial cover image). Another is a Frank Dandridge shot of a suspect with his hands against the wall of a gas station, held at bayonet point by a policeman (a variant of the image on page 26). The last, by Jim Pickerell, is a chaotic dimly lit street scene of police arresting several young men (published on pages 18-19 of the magazine). Each print was produced by Life Magazine for “non-exclusive editorial use in Report of the New Jersey Select Comm. for the Study of Civil Disorder.”
Estimate
$600 – $900
Register to Vote Today . . . I Can’t Vote Because I am a Dog! What’s Your Excuse?
No place, circa 1968
Handbill, 5½ x 4 inches; minimal war.
A clever NAACP voter registration appeal. If logic does not work, a cute dog is a good fallback.
The Oakland Post photo archive at the African American Museum & Library in Oakland holds a copy of the original photograph of the boy and dog, dated 1964. A placard with this image was displayed at a voter rights march in Amarillo, TX, as described by the Amarillo Globe-Times of 15 January 1968.
Estimate
$500 – $750
bob fitch, photographer.
Photograph of members of the Welfare Union in Chicago.
No place, circa late 1960s
Photograph, 8 x 10 inches, with inked “S.C.L.C. Photo by Bob Fitch” stamp and file number on verso; minor wear including 1¼-inch crease in lower margin.
Robert De Witt “Bob” Fitch (1939–2016) was a well-known civil rights-era photographer. Offered here is his photograph of four unidentified young men. The two in the middle wear buttons from the Welfare Union run by Chicago’s West Side Organization. The group was founded in 1964 and was most active in the 1960s. We don’t know if the man on the right was friend or foe.
WITH–two 10 x 8-inch photograph portraits of unidentified young men wearing Black Panther buttons.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Poster for the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee on police killings at Jackson State College.
New York, circa 1970
Double-sized poster, 22 x 14½ inches; mailing folds, minor wear, mailing staple holes on edges, typed address label to California supporter on verso.
The front side presents as a poster: “Jackson State College 1967: The Death of Benjamin Brown. . . Jackson State College 1970: The Deaths of Philip Gibbs and James Earl Green. . . Jackson State College 1973 . . . ?” On verso are 3 pages of text credited to Patricia Horan, an illustration and a mailing panel. The text explains the two ugly incidents at Jackson State College in Mississippi, as well as similar battles at Mississippi Valley State College and in the Homer, LA public schools. One in OCLC, at Brown University.
Estimate
$300 – $400
Group of 3 posters in support of the desegregation of Boston schools.
New York: Socialist Workers 1976 National Campaign Committee
3 posters, each about 11 x 17 inches; minimal wear.
These posters were issued in support of the desegregation of Boston public schools, which sparked anti-busing protests in the mid-1970s. One of these posters, headed “200 Years of Racism is Enough!”, features the most famous image from the crisis, Stanley Foreman’s photograph generally known as “The Soiling of Old Glory,” in which a protester swings an American flag at a Black lawyer who happened to be walking by. The photograph was the subject of a 2008 book by Louis Masur. The other two posters are titled “Desegregate the Schools!” and “Join the Fight against Racism!” (featuring a photograph of anti-segregation protesters). Each poster also features a pitch for the Socialist Workers Party ticket in the 1976 presidential race, Peter Camejo and Willie Mae Reid.
Estimate
$300 – $400
azim n. thomas.
Photograph of the Amadou Diallo funeral procession en route to the airport.
[New York], 28 February 1999
Photograph, 11 x 14 inches, with photographer’s signature and inked “Azim Nadir” stamp and inked date on verso; one-inch stain in lower margin, mount remnants on verso.
On 4 February 1999, Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo was mistaken for a rape suspect by New York City police officers. When he reached for his wallet to show identification, the unarmed man was shot 41 times. The officers were acquitted of all charges. After Diallo’s funeral at a New York mosque, the procession headed to the airport to return his body to Guinea. An independent photographer captured the scene in this period print.
Estimate
$200 – $300
(crime.)
Confession of Samuel Steenburgh, who Murdered Jacob S. Parker.
Albany, NY, 1878
Portrait plates of the murderer and his victim. 23 pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers, with rusty staples, dampstaining, and crude tape repairs; moderate dampstaining and wear to contents.
In the course of this lengthy testimony, a Black man confesses to the killing of a drunk during a botched robbery, and explains the sordid life of crime in Schoharie, NY which led him to that point. Several murders are described beyond the one he was convicted for, including two of his officers in the 20th United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. While Steenburgh’s story is not uplifting in any way, the rich background detail on Black life in small upstate New York towns makes for interesting reading. McDade 907; none traced at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(john wesley cromwell.)
Group of 6 books from the personal library of the important 19th-century scholar and activist.
Various places, 1857-1913
6 volumes, all 8vo or 12mo in publisher’s cloth bindings, various conditions as described below; all inscribed by or to John Wesley Cromwell.
These books are all inscribed by or 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 went on to a long and distinguished career as a journalist, editor, historian, and activist.
John Gihon. “Geary and Kansas.” 348 pages. 12mo, publisher’s cloth, moderate wear; moderate toning and minor foxing. A book on the abolitionist ferment in Kansas, bearing a gift inscription from just after the Civil War 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: “J. Wesley Cromwell, presented by Rev. J.R.V. Thomas, Portsmouth, Va., June 8, 1865.” Philadelphia, 1857.
Howard Carroll. “Twelve Americans: Their Lives and Times.” 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. A collection of short biographies of Frederick Douglass and eleven others, inscribed in Cromwell’s hand “A present from Frederick Douglass to J.W. Cromwell” on front free endpaper. John Wesley Cromwell founded the Bethel Literary and Historical Association in 1881 to serve Washington’s small but growing Black intelligentsia, where he came to know Douglass. New York, 1883.
George Washington Williams. “History of the Negro Race in America.” [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 edition of the first general history of African Americans. Some of Cromwell’s 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.” New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons / Knickerbocker Press, 1885.
John Sarbah. “Fanti Customary Laws.” 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. Gift inscription from Pan-Africanist historian John Edward Bruce (1856-1924), “John W. Cromwell Esq. from his friend Jno. E. Bruce, Aug 25 1897.” Cromwell’s granddaughter later signed “Adelaide C. Hill.” London: William Clowes and Sons, 1897.
William A. Sinclair. “The Aftermath of Slavery: A Study of the Condition and Environment of the American Negro.” 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 by the author on front pastedown “To J.W. Cromwell, compliments, Wm. A. Sinclair.” Both men were important Black intellectuals who shared a background in slavery, making this an interesting association copy. Boston, 1905.
Casely Hayford. “The Truth about the West African Land Question.” [8], 203, [11] including publisher’s ads. 8vo, publisher’s gilt cloth, minimal wear; minimal wear to contents, a few pencil notes. Another gift inscription by John Edward Bruce, “To my good friend John Wesley Cromwell, ‘Old Reliable,’ with best wishes, John E. Bruce ‘Grit’, Yonkers, N.Y., 11/8/13.” London: C.M. Phillips, 1913.
Provenance: John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927); his daughter Otelia Cromwell (1874-1972), a noted literary scholar; and his granddaughter Adelaide M. Cromwell (1919-2019), an important sociologist.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Frederick Douglass
Frederick douglass.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself.
Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1847; Rochester, NY: North Star Office, 1848
xvi, 125 pages. Small 8vo, publisher’s calf-backed printed paper-covered boards, minimal wear; minor foxing; early owner’s pencil signature and doodles on the endpapers.
Third edition, second state–bound and issued by Douglass at his press–and one of the few instances of a book’s later edition being more important than the first. Late in 1847, not long after returning from his period of English exile, Frederick Douglass moved from Boston to upstate New York and began publishing his own newspaper, to be called the “North Star.” He brought with him some loose printed sheets of the Boston Anti-Slavery Society’s 1847 third edition of his Narrative. Once established in Rochester, he had them bound up as they are here, with the North Star imprint. We have traced no copies of the North Star binding with the frontispiece plate found in the Boston first issue; Douglass apparently did not bring the engravings along with the text sheets.
The original owner of this copy, Daniel McWilliams of Rochester, signed and inscribed it in 1850. This appears to be the Daniel McWilliams (1820-1883), born in Scotland, who was listed as a tinman in the 1851 Rochester directory, was in the 1860 census in nearby Albion as a tinsmith, and wrote a serialized memoir for the Neighbor’s Home Mail in 1874, “An Autobiography: How I Became a Drunkard.” In the June 1874 installment (page 107), he discusses his time in Rochester and working in a tin shop, although he does not mention any connection to the abolitionist movement. Nor can we guess why he decorated both pastedowns with crude sketches of hands. He died in East Bloomfield, NY.
This Rochester issue is believed to be the only book Douglass ever issued from his own press, and this is by far the finest of the six examples we have traced at auction.
Estimate
$20,000 – $30,000
(frederick douglass.) [samuel montague fassett; photographer.]
Carte-de-visite portrait of Douglass taken during the Civil War.
Chicago, IL, [late February 1864]
Albumen copy-print photograph, 3½ x 2 inches, on period mount with printed caption “Fred. Douglas”; minor foxing, a bit of dampstaining in lower left corner of mount.
Probably the most popular war-date portrait of Douglass. He was in Chicago to deliver two lectures just across the street from Fassett’s studio on 25 and 28 February 1864. See “Picturing Frederick Douglass,” #28 and page 24.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(frederick douglass.) [john white hurn, photographer.]
Carte-de-visite portrait of Douglass, taken by an old ally.
[Philadelphia, 10 March 1873]
Albumen photograph, 3½ x 2¼ inches, on contemporary plain lined mount, with manuscript caption “Fred Douglas” on lower mount; minimal wear.
This photograph was likely taken of Douglass on 10 March 1873. He was then publishing his final newspaper, the New National Era, and had recently relocated to Washington. That day he was in Philadelphia to lecture at the Academy of Music. Four blocks away was the studio of photographer John White Hurn (1823-1887), who had fully earned the confidence of Douglass over a period of years.
Back in 1859, Hurn had been working as a Philadelphia telegraph operator when news of John Brown’s capture came through the wires–along with an order for the local sheriff to arrest Frederick Douglass as a conspirator. Hurn was an ardent abolitionist and Douglass supporter. He stepped away from the telegraph office, got the word out that Douglass was in danger, and promised to delay the delivery of the message for three hours so Douglass could get out of town. This allowed Douglass to safely reach Canada just ahead of the authorities. When Hurn later became a photographer, Douglass sat for him three times in a total of nine extant poses–the most by any photographer. Here we see Douglass posed comfortably in the studio of an old ally.
Only two other examples of this pose have been traced in institutions, at the Library of Congress and the George Eastman House. See “Picturing Frederick Douglass,” #71 and pages 19 and 43.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
(frederick douglass.) george kendall warren, photographer.
The classic carte-de-visite portrait of Douglass.
Boston, circa 1879
Albumen photograph, 3¾ x 2¼ inches, on original mount with photographer’s backstamp and facsimile signature on mount recto, inked facsimile Douglass signature stamp on recto, pencil “Douglass” on verso; minimal wear and soiling.
Perhaps the best-known portrait of Douglass, used for the frontispiece of his third autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. “Picturing Frederick Douglass” 96.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Frederick douglass.
Letter confirming his upcoming lecture on John Brown.
Washington, 28 November [1882?]
Autograph Letter Signed as “Fred’k Douglass” to unknown recipient. 2 pages, 8 x 5 inches, plus integral blank; light toning.
Douglass makes arrangements for a lecture on his old friend John Brown, whose raid on Harper’s Ferry he had supported but refused to join back in 1859. Here he writes: “You may depend upon me for a lecture on ‘John Brown’ in Vineland Tuesday evening December 12th on the conditions already agreed to. I hope you will give me a good audience on the occasion. My health is quite equal to the work before me. Please tell me at what time it will be necessary to leave Philadelphia in order to reach you in time? I can be in Philadelphia about half past one on the afternoon of Tuesday. Will this be early enough to connect for Vineland?”
Vineland, NJ was founded as a progressive utopian community in 1862; Douglass was recruited as an early member but never moved there. Douglass revealed many of the details of his relationship with John Brown for the first time in an 1881 lecture at Storer College, and elaborated on them in his 1881 autobiography, “Life and Times.” He lectured frequently on Brown over the next few years. His first wife Anna died in August 1882, and Douglass was widely reported to be in ill health in late November and December 1882. December 12th fell on a Tuesday in 1876, 1882, and 1893, but the 1882 date seems most likely, although he was still on the lecture circuit in 1893.
WITH–a period photograph of an engraved portrait of Douglass, 5 x 3½ inches oval, on embossed mount of publisher Foust Studios of Wilson, NC. Provenance: Carol Yvonne Perdue Black Memorabilia Collection.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Frederick douglass.
Proceedings of the Civil Rights Mass-Meeting Held at Lincoln Hall.
Washington: C. P. Farrell, 1883
Errata slip tipped in. 53 pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers, foxing, moderate wear, light rust stains from binding staples; minor wear, minor dampstaining to early leaves.
Contains an important speech by Douglass. 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
$2,000 – $3,000
Education
(education.) john b. russwurm.
Letter by the future founder of America’s first Black newspaper.
North Yarmouth, ME, 22 June 1819
Autograph Letter Signed to friend John Otis, a student at Paris Academy in Oxford, ME. 3 pages, 12¼ x 7½ inches, on one folding sheet, with address panel on final blank (no postal markings); mailing folds, seal tear near signature not affecting text, otherwise minor wear.
John Brown Russwurm (1799-1851) was born in Jamaica, the son of an unknown enslaved woman and her owner. He moved to Portland, ME in 1812 with his father, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1826 as just the third Black college graduate in the United States. He later founded the abolitionist Freedom’s Journal in 1827–the first Black-owned and operated newspaper in the country, which he published for two years before emigrating to Liberia.
Offered here is a letter written when Russwurm was only 19 years old, before he began college. He begins by addressing his secondary education: “Well, what think you, friend Otis, Hebron Academy burnt down? Astonishing, you would reply. Not all so, I consider it as the judgment of heaven for their treatment of the few independent souls who resided with them during the past year. True is the saying ‘all for the best,’ for we see it plainly proved in the visitations of heaven on the Hebronites. . . . You inquired the reason of not appearing in Hebron the last quarter. I mentioned when I came away to Shubael Tripp that if I studied all winter I should not be in Hebron any more (to school); and another, is that I did want to come, for I might have been there all the time that school kept, as such was the desire of my guardian. I shall attend the two ensuing months at Gorham Academy, I expect as soon as my guardian returns from Boston, and I can get ready.” He concludes by wishing Otis well in his studies, and sending greetings to mutual friends.
Provenance: formerly on deposit at Bowdoin College as part of their Rowland Bailey Howard Papers, withdrawn by the owner in 1993, and sold by a dealer to the consignor in 2002. A full transcript of the letter is still available on the Bowdoin website, and it has been widely cited by scholars.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
(education.)
Letter from a teacher at a “coloured school” in antebellum Georgia.
Athens, GA, 24 November 1831
Autograph Letter Signed from Shale G. Hillyer to Colden Ketchum of Augusta, GA. 3 pages, 9½ x 8 inches, on one folding sheet plus address panel on final blank bearing inked Athens postmark; minor foxing and wear, seal tear affecting a few words on third page.
This letter was written by Shaler Granby Hillyer (1809-1900), a white man who was at that time a self-described “school-master” in Athens, Georgia. His letter contains one intriguing passage: “Our coloured school has adjourned till the 1st Sabbath in Jan. We were compelled to do this from total want of teachers. Miss J. Cosby & myself were all we could procure for a constancy. Dr. Linton is married, Miss Calloway has gone to Salem N.C, Sarah N. has gone to Milledgeville, and Miss J. is all that is left for me to confide my troubles, and she is at present unwell.”
We can find no record of any educational institution for Black students in Athens before emancipation, and there must have been few if any throughout the South. As this school was held on the Sabbath, we suspect it was a Bible study class, which would be unusual enough. Hillyer was a southerner from a Yankee family (his middle name was taken from a town in Connecticut); he became a Baptist preacher in 1832 and continued for a remarkable 68 years.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(education.)
Report of the Trial of Miss Prudence Crandall . . . Charging her with Teaching Colored Persons.
Brooklyn: Unionist Press, 1833
22 pages. 4to, 10¼ x 7½ inches, stitched; long cello tape repairs to 4 leaves including title, foxing, minor dampstaining; uncut; faint pencil inscription on final page.
In 1831, Prudence Crandall (1803-1890) established the Canterbury Female Boarding School for the education of aristocratic girls from Connecticut and beyond. In the fall of 1832, a Black girl applied for admission to the school. Crandall consulted her Bible and decided to admit the girl, thus establishing the first integrated school in the United States. This did not last for very long, as all of the white parents quickly withdrew their daughters from the school. In April 1833, Crandall reopened for “young Ladies and little Misses of color,” enrolling girls from across the northeast. The next month, Connecticut passed a law in reaction forbidding the education of Black children from out of state, and in July Crandall was arrested. No examples of this trial report have been traced at auction since 1940; not in Blockson or Afro-Americana.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(education.)
Album kept by a sorority member at North Carolina A & T.
Various places, 1936-1945 and undated
150 photographs (generally well-captioned) mounted with corners, 2 pieces of ephemera, and some newspaper clippings laid down, mounted on 63 scrapbook leaves of varied colors. Oblong folio, 9 x 12 inches, post binder with hinged polished wooden boards reading “A. and T. College, V.O.C. 41-43”; some photographs removed, a few leaves slightly brittle, but generally an attractive, tidy, and well-preserved presentation.
This scrapbook was kept by Virginia Omega Collier (1919-2016) of Plainfield NJ, daughter of a blind A.M.E. pastor. She enrolled at North Carolina’s Shaw College in 1938 and then attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University from 1941 to 1943. She acquired this album in 1941, but included family photographs going back as early as 1936. It is a well-curated compendium of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters, students in science lab, vacations on the Jersey Shore, soldiers on leave, and homecoming floats. Ephemera includes a program for her cousin Vivian Collier, “Colored Soprano,” at Manhattan’s Town Hall, 1942; and a portrait of George Washington Carver. Clippings document her sister Elouise’s admittance as the second Black student at the Yale School of Nursing, and community recognition of her father’s long service as a clergyman.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
(education.) addison scurlock.
Group photo, probably of the Howard University May Festival.
[Washington], circa 1930s
Silver print, 10¾ x 19¾ inches, with printed “Scurlock Photo” signature in lower margin; minimal wear, just a bit warped.
Howard named a May Queen at its annual May Festival from at least 1927 through 1946.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(education.)
Large collection of ephemera from Storer College in West Virginia.
Harpers Ferry, WV, 1907 and 1938-1950, plus two later items
Approximately 70 items (0.4 linear feet) in one box; various sizes and conditions.
Storer College grew out of a humble school for freedmen in Harpers Ferry which was established in 1865. It was chartered in 1868, and became an important locus of the early civil rights movement, in part because of its proximity to the site of John Brown’s raid. Frederick Douglass delivered an important speech on John Brown there in 1881, the NAACP was born there in 1906, and John Brown’s Fort was relocated to the campus in 1909 (it has since been moved back to near its original location in downtown Harpers Ferry). The school closed in 1955, and the campus is now part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Offered here is a collection of ephemera from several different Storer students, including diplomas dated 1947 and 1950; commencement programs from 1907, 1945, and 1947; 7 other programs from 1943-1950 including a homecoming game and a 1945 conference on “facing the Aftermath of War” plus a 1999 reunion program; 6 college bulletins and catalog summaries from 1942-1950; a small paper pennant; a manuscript invitation to the 1946 Tornado Ball; an undated list of the college’s 100 female students; 5 worn issues of The Tornado, the college newspaper, 1945-46; and a circa 1900 bookplate from the college library.
Finally, the lot includes 33 manuscript and ephemera items from a 1947 graduate: class schedules, letters regarding the sets for a school play, several increasingly testy cards from the college library regarding overdue books, her 2011 memorial program, and her pre-Storer College scrapbook circa 1938 titled “Negro History and Plenty of It,” featuring clippings on everyone from Marian Anderson to Mary McLeod Bethune to Haile Selassie.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(education.)
Texas Negro Librarians 15th Annual Luncheon program.
Marshall, TX, 1950
4 pages. Illustrated wrapper cropped into the shape of a book, 5 x 4¼ inches; light crease, mount remnant on rear wrapper.
A program for a conference on “Meeting Community and Curriculum Needs through the Library” at Wiley College. The main interest is probably the charming book-shaped cover.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(education.) mary frances herd.
A Directory of Negro Colleges.
Los Angeles, CA: American Offset Printers, 1953
v, 116 pages. 8vo, original printed wrappers, minimal wear; original “copyright requested” statement blacked out on verso of title, with inked copyright stamp below as issued (slight bleed-through to title page).
This guide features a summary of 100 historically black colleges and universities, including for each the population of their town, their founding date, their enrollment, their president, the cost of room and board, and a list of degree programs. Also included are a short preface, and categorized lists of state-controlled colleges, church-controlled colleges organized by denomination, junior colleges, and colleges sorted by state.
The compiler, Mary Frances Herd Black (1924-2008), was a graduate of Knoxville College, and compiled this guide while pursuing her Doctor of Education degree at the University of Southern California. She went on to a long and distinguished career as an educator in California. 5 copies of this guide are preserved in libraries per OCLC, and none traced at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(education.)
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
$200 – $300
Entertainment
Signed photograph of Paul Robeson.
London, 1924
Photograph, 8¼ x 5¼ inches, signed and inscribed “Every good wish, Paul Robeson, London 1924,” with small embossed photographer’s stamp of by S. Georges of London, and his inked stamp on verso; mount remnants on verso, otherwise minimal wear.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Paul Robeson’s signed copy of Bernhard Karlgren’s “Sound and Symbol in Chinese.”
London, 1929
112, [4] pages including publisher’s ads. 8vo, publisher’s cloth, minimal wear; short tear on title page, some tidy underlining in pencil; signed “Paul Robeson” in green ink on front pastedown.
Robeson had a long interest in China, most notably translating the song “March of the Volunteers” into English in 1940, recording it in English and Chinese, and making it a staple of his concert performances. It later became the national anthem of China.
Estimate
$500 – $750
e. simms campbell, artist.
A Night-Club Map of Harlem,
[New York], 18 January 1933
featured in the inaugural issue of “Manhattan: 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 edge wear, short closed separations at folds, light soiling to page 1 only. With the original 8 x 8 illustrated wrapper printed in blue and black, minimal wear.
First printing of the famous map depicting the height of the Harlem Renaissance. It serves as a guide to the old speakeasies and night-clubs that dotted the landscape during the Prohibition era, which ended later that year. The Savoy Ballroom, the Cotton Club featuring Cab Calloway’s Band (“one of the fastest stepping revues in N.Y.”), 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,” Don Redman, and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (“The world’s greatest tapdancer”). The caption recommends “a dozen Marahuana cigarettes guaranteed to give a three-day jag,” and explains the numbers racket: “Most of the gamblers pick their numbers from dream books.”
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. The original artwork for this remarkable map hammered for $80,000 in Swann’s 31 March 2016 sale, one of the all-time highlights of our annual Printed and Manuscript African Americana sales.
Estimate
$12,000 – $18,000
Scrapbook of actor-pianist Reginald Beane.
Various places, 1939-1944
3 photographs, 28 partial telegraph messages, 4 letters, 5 tickets, a typed CV, and many dozens of newspaper and program clippings mounted on 28 scrapbook leaves. Folio, original string-bound boards, front board detached; leaves worn and most edges reinforced with tape, several items detached or missing.
Reginald “Sonny” Beane (1918-1985) was born in Bermuda and came to New York with his mother soon after his birth. He went on to a distinguished career as an actor and pianist, with the early years well-documented in this album. Beane was cast in the Pulitzer Prize-winning first play by distinguished author William Saroyan, “The Time of Your Life,” in 1939. Beane had a key supporting role as a “colored boy who plays a mean and melancholy Boogie-Woogie piano,” and performed 4 of his original compositions as part of the show. Included here are numerous clippings of reviews and programs, as well as two pages of clipped congratulatory telegrams from Ethel Waters, Frances Williams, and the playwright, who cabled “Your work enhances the values in my play very much and I am deeply grateful.” Also included are a Letter Signed by Saroyan dated 8 February 1940, praising Beane at greater length and adding “I’m sure some day there will be an even better part in one of my plays for you to play, and if you are free we’ll hope the play won’t flop.” A postcard from Saroyan repeats the sentiment. A photograph shows Beane at his piano in a 1940 Chicago performance of the play.
A 1939 photograph shows Beane with the pioneering Black conductor Eva Jessye, and another depicts a July 1941 banquet in honor of Jessye, where they are joined by singers Georgette Harvey and Abbie Mitchell, and more. Three later 1941 and 1942 telegrams from Ethel Waters invite him to Los Angeles for “a vaudeville engagement”–the play “Mamba’s Daughters” in which she starred. His typed list of credits runs from 1934 to 1941, with other highlights including a stint as assistant choral director and accompanist in “Porgy and Bess.” A 1943 letter from the principal of an Oakland, CA junior high school thanks Beane for his visit, which inspired “our nearly 500 Negro students.” A 1944 promotional card shows Beane on the bill with actor Canada Lee and trumpeter Erskine Hawkins at a benefit concert in Atlanta. This album is a remarkable slice of show-biz life from a talented performer who crossed paths with many of the biggest names of his era.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Group of Josephine Baker photos and ephemera.
Various places, 1935-1968 and undated
7 items, condition generally strong.
Early photograph of Baker by Walery of Paris with apparently forged signature.
Photo postcard of Baker in her first film role, “La Syrene des Tropiques.”
Undated photograph of Baker singing, circa 1950s?
Small French press photo of Baker, 19 April 1968.
Handbill for a French screening of Baker’s 1935 film “Princesse Tam-Tam” and Shirley Temple’s “Le Petite Colonel.”
Advertising card. “Josephine Baker chante J’ai deux amours . . . Paris . . . Pernod fils.”
Program for a 1958 German performance with Peter Kreuder.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Interesting group of photographs of Sammy Davis, Jr., some from his friend and press agent.
Various places, 1954-1967
5 photographs, each about 8 x 10 inches, each captioned on verso; minor wear.
5 photographs from early in the career of the noted actor-singer-comedian-dancer-producer.
Two shots of Vice President Richard Nixon with the Will Mastin vaudeville trio (Sammy Davis Sr., Sammy Davis Jr., and Will Mastin) at the Copacabana, New York, 1954. In one, they are joined by Mrs. Nixon and bandleader Nat Brandywynne. Davis and Nixon became longtime friends; Davis became the first Black man to stay at the White House as an invited guest in 1973. Both are captioned on verso with inked credit stamps of Jess Rand, press agent of Davis, who is believed to be the photographer.
Davis posing at a Circus Saints & Sinners event, Waldorf Astoria, with fellow tapdancer Howard “Sandman” Sims and female impersonator Erica Weil, New York, circa late 1950s.
Davis and his first wife Loray White Davis, and his fellow Rat Packer Frank Sinatra, credited to photographer B.C. Mittleman. Davis had been dating white actress Kim Novak, which drew threats of mob violence. To continue his career safely, he paid Loray White a large sum to participate in a sham marriage, under the agreement that it would be soon dissolved. Davis’s press agent Jess Rand has appended a later note on the circumstances of this photo: “Perhaps the only time S.D. & Loray were seen in public (excluding wedding). He took her out once. They never talked to each other or lived with each other from day 1 of marriage. I drove her to party & took her home. Sammy had to make that one public appearance.” Hollywood, CA, “1955” [1958].
Publicity still for his 1968 film “Salt and Pepper,” 7 August 1967.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(comedy.)
In Person, Rudy Ray Moore, “Mr. Dolomite.”
Houma, LA, 28 August [1975]
Illustrated poster, 28 x 22 inches; moderate soiling and minor wear, horizontal fold.
Moore had a modest career as an R&B singer and comic until developing a comedy routine around a profane rhyming pimp named Dolomite in 1970, peaking with the 1975 blaxploitation classic film “Dolomite.” He was recently portrayed by Eddie Murphy in “Dolomite is My Name.”
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(dance.)
Collection on the dancer Katherine Dunham.
Various places, circa 1944-1945
20 items, condition generally strong.
Group of 14 4 x 6-inch photographs from a performance of her “Carib Song,” stamped by photographer Richard Tucker of Boston.
A playbill for a performance of “Carib Girl,” Adelphi Theatre, New York, 21 October 1945 (torn front page).
Promotional material for her “Tropical Revue,” including 2 copies of the program, a playbill for a Boston Opera House performance from October 1944, a publicity photograph, and a promotional handbill.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(film.)
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
$400 – $600
(film).
Group of 21 promotional film photographs featuring Louise Beavers.
Various places, 1934-60 and undated
8 x 10 inches; generally minor wear, some captioned in negative, most captioned in ink or pencil on verso.
Louise Beavers (1900-1962) was one of the first Black actresses with a long Hollywood career, although she was generally cast in only a limited range of roles. This lot includes scenes from Scandal Street, West of the Pecos, Annapolis Farewell, Wives Never Know, Love in a Bungalow, South of Dixie, Delightfully Dangerous, Young Widow, I Dream of Jeannie, Teenage Rebel, All the Fine Young Cannibals (one of her final roles from 1960, featuring Robert Wagner and Pearl Bailey, illustrated), and more. Includes 2 duplicates.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(film.) a. philip fenty.
Original script for the original film Super Fly.
New York: Plaza Pictures, 1972
[1], 53 mimeographed leaves. 11 x 8½ inches, in glossy black paper binder secured with fasteners, with title gilt-stamped on front, minor wear; contents heavily annotated in ink.
The popular blaxploitation film Super Fly was filmed in New York from January to April 1972 by director Gordon Parks; his name is added in manuscript on the title page on this script. The film spawned two sequels and a 2018 remake.
This copy bears the name and address of Julie Woodson of Kew Gardens, NY, who according to the Internet Movie Database was originally cast in the key role of Georgia, but walked off the set when asked to do a nude scene. Georgia’s lines and scenes are underlined in the script.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(hip hop.)
Group of show fliers ranging from major acts to the grass roots.
Mostly New York, 1980-1992
Each about 11 x 8½ inches except as noted; mostly minor wear except as noted.
“The Music Meastros presents a Ladies Night Sure Shot,” credited to Bee Flyer Production, for show at the James Monroe Center. Bronx, NY, 17 October [1980].
“J.C. Production Presents Back to School with the Mark Five,” credited to Eddie Ed, at St. Andrew’s Church. Bronx, NY, 18 October 1980.
“Ecstasy Garage Disco Presents: The Funky Four Plus One More.” 8½ x 6½ inches, missing a bit of one corner. Bronx, NY, 21 November 1980.
“Nubian Productions Presents: The 21st Century Electric Boogie Jam, James Monroe H.S.,” credited to Eddie Ed. 7 x 8½ inches. Afrika Bambaataa, Jazzy Jay and others on the bill. New York, 21 March 1981.
“R.C. Pac Jam Production! Presentsss Showdown M.C. Throwdown.” Lists 21 competitors for $150 in prizes; illustrated with a Smurf. [New York]: Ponderosa, 8 October 1982.
“M.C. Robbie Dee, M.C. Stanski, D.J. Tony Rome . . . The Turn-It-Out Brothers.” Quite worn. Mount Vernon, NY: Eujean’s Domain, 23 February 1985.
“Cypress Hill Positive Unity . . . Free Pot!” 5½ x 4 inches; concert at Washington Square Park at “high noon.” New York: NY Grassroots Cannabis Action, 2 May 1992.
“Summer Jam 92 with DJ Robbie D.” 8½ x 5½ inches; minor soiling. [Melbourne, FL], 19 June 1992.
WITH–a bonus disco flier: “V.I.P. Presents Entourage! Disco Fashion Affair in the Martin Luther King Building . . . Electrifying Disco Sounds by Together Bros.” New York, 22 December 1979.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(hip hop.)
Pair of Afrika Bambaataa fliers.
Various places, 1982 and 1985
Each 11 x 8½ inches; minimal wear.
“WBMX Welcomes Afrika Bambaataa’s Soul Sonic Force, Planet Rock, Rap, Funk & Turntable Madness.” From the year of his pioneering breakthrough electro funk hit Planet Rock. Chicago: Stages, 17 August [1982].
“Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force with Shango.” The club’s monthly calendar appears on verso. Minneapolis, MN: First Avenue, 27 May [1985.]
WITH–Membership card for the Universal Zulu Nation in red, black, and green on pink, Bronx, NY.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(hip hop.)
San Diego Jam Company Presents the 2nd Annual Halloween Slam.
San Diego, CA, 30 October 1982
Photocopied flier, 11 x 8½ inches; mounted on scrapbook leaf.
Starring the master of the turntable Dee-Jay Swann (a man who could surely drop the hammer) & M.C. Master Z, at San Diego City College.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(hip hop.)
The Swatch Watch New York City Fresh Festival ‘84.
Oakland, CA, 9 December 1984
Flier, 11 x 8½ inches, in red and black; minimal wear.
This was regarded as the first national hip hop tour. It featured Run-DMC, the Fat Boys, Whodini, Kurtis Blow, and more. A local artist was apparently brought in to handle the flier art, drawing his own logos for the acts.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
(hip hop.)
The 87 Def Jam Tour.
New Orleans, LA: Ghost Productions / Preferred Press, 26 June 1987
Poster, 29 x 21 inches; worn from use, with several holes touching text, and two light creases.
LL Cool J and Whodini are the headliners, with Doug E. Fresh and Kool Moe Dee also on the bill. Public Enemy, which had just released their debut album in February, receives fourth billing. The design was likely by Eric Haze, who handled much of Def Jam’s graphic design in this period. The show took place at the University of New Orleans Lakefront Arena.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
(hip hop.)
Get Up On This! . . . In Person, Salt ‘n Pepa.
Thibodaux, LA, 13 November [1987]
Poster, 22 x 13¾ inches; light dampstaining, minimal wear.
A poster from the first national tour by the pioneering all-woman group Salt-N-Pepa. Their debut album was out, but their hit “Push It” would not peak on the charts until early 1988. That probably pushed their advance ticket prices beyond the $8.00 shown here.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(hip hop.)
Vin-Asia Blackstar Presents: Goodie Mob, Outkast, K. Sharock.
[Charlotte, NC], 30 December [1995]
Poster, 22 x 14 inches, on heavy rainbow stock; minimal wear.
This concert took place the year that Outkast’s debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik went platinum, bringing Southern hip hop to the attention of the world.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
(hip hop.)
Coming Fall 99, Method Man, Redman, the Album.
No place, circa September 1999
Poster, 36 x 24 inches; minor wear including tack holes at corners, ½-inch image loss near top edge.
Advertises their first full-length collaboration, “Blackout!,” which dropped on 28 September 1999 and soon went platinum. No other copies traced.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(music.) thomas j. martin.
Emancipation March.
4 pages, 13½ x 9¾ inches, on 2 detached sheets; minor wear; inked stamp of London, ON music dealer on title page.
Thomas J. Martin was a free Black composer and music teacher active in New Orleans from 1854 to 1860 who published several songs. He was arrested on charges of seducing some of his students in 1860, and nearly lynched. The instrumental piece “Emancipation March” was first published with a dedication to Abraham Lincoln, and went through several printings; we are aware of none others at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(music.)
Cabinet card promoting the South African Kaffir Choir.
Boston, circa 1894?
Albumen photograph, 5½ x 4 inches, on gilt mount of Elmer Chickering’s Royal Studio; minimal wear.
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 of two children in the troupe was taken in Boston at Elmer Chickering’s Royal Photographic and Portrait Studio.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(music.) scott joplin.
Treemonisha: Opera in Three Acts.
New York: Scott Joplin, [1911]
230 pages. Large 4to, original cloth-backed printed wrappers, moderate wear and soiling; minimal dampstaining in margins, a bit musty; gift inscription on inner wrapper “To Etta Moten from Mrs. Scott Joplin, June 18, 1939.”
An ambitious and long-forgotten composition by one of America’s first great Black composers. An opera set on a post-Reconstruction Arkansas plantation, it incorporates ballet, arias, and other classical forms in addition to the ragtime which Joplin was best known for. It tells the story of a young woman struggling to free her community from ignorance and superstition.
Joplin self-published this score in 1911, but was never able to mount a full production, just a disastrous 1915 read-through, and a performance of one ballet by a school group. With his death in 1917, the work fell into near-total obscurity. During a ragtime revival in the 1970s, the score was rediscovered. The first full performance was not until 1972, long after Joplin’s death; modern dance master Katherine Dunham was the director. It has been staged several times since, to glowing reviews.
This copy was a personal gift from Joplin’s widow Lottie Stokes Joplin (circa 1875-1953), who remained in New York after his death. It was given to Etta Moten Barnett (1901-2004), an established singer and actress who had performed at the White House.
Only one other copy of this original score has been traced at auction, which sold at Swann on 15 February 2001, lot 290.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
(music.)
Photograph of a Missouri mandolin orchestra.
Hannibal, MO: Frazer Photos, circa 1920s
Photograph, 6¼ x 15½ inches, with photographer credit in negative; minimal wear.
Ten women and one man pose with their instruments, most of them holding mandolins and two of them with guitars. Mandolin orchestras were popular in the early 20th century. The Frazer studio was active from 1919 to 1937, and was known for encouraging their subjects to smile.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(music.) w.c. handy.
His signature and inscription on a fragment of “St. Louis Blues.”
No place, 25 March 1927
Fragment of printed sheet music, 5¼ x 9 inches, inscribed by the composer “To Mr. H.C. Osgood, with my best wishes, W.C. Handy, 3/25/27”; folds, unevenly torn at edges, light wear and foxing.
On verso is part of the color cover for Handy’s big 1914 hit, here described as “The St. Louis Blues, the first successful ‘Blues’ published.” The inscribee may have been Henry O. Osgood (1887-1927), associate editor of the Musical Courier and regarded as the first jazz critic.
Estimate
$300 – $400
(music.)
Substantial archive of Louis Armstrong, including memoirs, signed contract, travel itineraries, and more.
Various places, 1950-1970 and undated
Approximately 145 items (0.3 linear feet) in one box; condition generally strong.
This archive helps tell the story of the great jazz trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong (1901-1971). It was collected by his longtime personal physician and close associate Dr. Alexander Schiff (1899-1990), who accompanied Armstrong on tour through most of the 1960s.
Most notable in this lot are a group of Armstrong’s typescript memoirs. “Satchmo in Hawaii” is an original typescript in 22 single-spaced pages, signed by Armstrong at the end, with his initials on every page. The first 8 pages are on yellow “Satchmo” letterhead, and the remainder on mismatched plain sheets, the whole bound in one corner with a tied rubber band. It was written on 5 March 1952, and begins with a gig in Sacramento’s Clayton Club [24 February 1952]. It recounts every detail of the ensuing week-long tour of Hawaii, commenting on other jazz players he hears there, every enormous meal he eats, every radio interview. His process is explained on page 16: “I sit here listening to my tape recorder, which I usually keep going constantly while I’m writing.” He signs it “Am red beans and ricely yours, Louis Armstrong.”
Two shorter memoirs appear to be carbon copies, and are not signed. “The Roaring Twenties, Chicago, Ill.” is 9 pages, with several inked notes and corrections, covering events from his early career in 1922. “The Satchmo Story” is 10 pages, also with numerous corrections, covering his time in Chicago in 1931, ranging from his fondness for marijuana to the health problems which afflicted trombonist Jimmy Harrison. This one is accompanied by a torn and stained 10 December 1954 letter signed by Armstrong to agent Joe Glaser: “I am sending this part of the story in now as I think it is important.” Finally, a pair of “Recordio-Disc” home-recorded 45-rpm phonograph records has “Armstrong’s Story as read by Lucille Armstrong,” recorded in Washington on 31 October 1950 and sent to agent Glaser. The memoirs appear to be unpublished, and we trace no other examples of the “Roaring Twenties.”
One other item is signed by Armstrong, a contract arranged by Associated Booking Corporation for a 4-week tour in Germany and Czechoslovakia in 1965. Armstrong signed both the one-page contract and the final page of the 3-page typed rider.
Photographs include a packet of 23 snapshots from a Japanese tour, most 6½ x 4¾ inches and most depicting Armstrong; an 8 x 10-inch shot of Armstrong and his entourage dining at the Empire Room in Chicago; 14 8 x 10-inch publicity photographs (some duplicates); and an 8 x 10 shot of Armstrong and friends at the Mr. President Hotel in Grand Rapids, MI.
A folder of correspondence and memoranda, 1951-1969 (29 items) is mostly directed to Armstrong’s physician Alexander Schiff, and largely relates to Armstrong tour arrangements and medical treatment, but sometimes extends into creative territory. Highlights include a 1951 film pitch for “The Louis Armstrong Story”; 1959 cameraman’s report on filming “Louis Armstrong in the Holy Land”; and letters arranging a 1960 African tour. Agent Joe Glaser, a frequent correspondent, wrote to the doctor on 2 January 1968: “See that Louis rehearses a couple of those new songs and gets ready to do them on the Hollywood Place show, because I don’t want him to repeat anything.” Another thick folder of tour calendars and itineraries (40 items) in a variety of formats is dated 1959-1970.
Printed ephemera includes 9 programs from Armstrong events, 1965-1970; Down Beat Magazine’s “Salute to Satch” from 1965; and postcards from resort appearances (including some duplicates). More unusual is a German medical article offprint from 1961 describing dental treatment for horn players.
Provenance: collected by Dr. Alexander Schiff, and then by gift to the consignor.
Estimate
$6,000 – $9,000
(music.)
Archive of Dizzy Gillespie’s personal music and arrangements.
Various places, 1970s-1980s
Several hundred pages of manuscript music in various hands plus other papers (0.6 linear feet); plus 9 books in a separate box; a bit musty, some items with moderate to heavy wear or dampstaining.
This large cache of music was purchased at auction from the estate of the great trumpet player and Ambassador of Jazz, John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie (1917-1993). It includes more than 70 pieces of manuscript sheet music from Gillespie’s collection. By volume, the bulk are arrangements for songs performed by his band, as copied out for him by professional transcriptionists, with parts for several instruments, or sometimes just trumpet. They include one of his most popular co-compositions, the Cuban jazz classic “Manteca” from 1947, as written out by arranger-copyist Jewell Grant, with the parts for the second alto sax, and a trumpet part stamped simply “Dizzy” (illustrated). Many others are by notable arrangers. Highlights include: the national anthems of Iran, Pakistan, and Yugoslavia as arranged by Quincy Jones for trumpet, presumably in preparation for a world tour; 4 pieces arranged by regular Gillespie composer Benny Golson including “Blues After Dark,” “Just by Myself,” “Out of the Past,” and “Seabreeze”; 3 pieces arranged by Gillespie associate Gigi Gryce, “A Nite at Tony’s,” “Shabozz,” and “Smoke Signal”; a piece titled “C.W.3” with the tune credited to Bill Cosby and Dizzy Gillespie and the arrangement by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson; and an arrangement of W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues.” Other pieces range widely on a spectrum from compositions sent by admirers, to formal arrangements created for band use. Compositions sent to Gillespie include works by Niagara Falls jazzman Spider Martin, with 1982 cover letter; “Nigerian Waterfalls” by actor-musician Santiago Gonzalez; pieces by Steve Turre and T.J. Anderson of Tufts University; 3 transcriptions of Gillespie’s recorded performances by Don Erjavec; and more. A list of the compositions in this lot is available upon request. Also included in this archive are:
Gillespie’s memoir “To Be or Not to Bop,” 1984 German edition, signed on the front free endpaper “Dizzy Gillespie ‘88,” plus 4 unsigned copies of the 1981 French edition, and 3 unsigned copies of the 1980 Finnish edition.
Ralph Berton’s 1974 biography “Remembering Bix,” inscribed warmly “to the best damned horn man in the world, this one about one of your ancestors” (quite warped).
3 portraits of unidentified sitters by Gillespie’s wife Lorraine.
Provenance: Dawson & Nye’s Dizzy Gillespie estate sale, 14 September 2005 (copy of the catalog included with the lot).
Estimate
$6,000 – $9,000
(music.)
Archive of Dizzy Gillespie’s audio and video tapes.
Various places, 1956-1984 and undated
50 items in one box; condition varies, a bit musty, a few water-damaged.
These tapes were purchased from the estate of the great trumpet player John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie. We have not listened to them, so we can’t guarantee what’s on them, or their playability–we can only testify to what’s written on the labels, which are enough to be quite intriguing. The lot includes 21 labelled 7-inch reel-to-reel audio tapes, with labels such as “Part 2, Gillespie & Lombardo,” “Rehearsal (Woody, Chris, Rudy, Kenny) Begin the Beguine”; “April 21 1963, Dizzy Gillespie, A Negro Looks at Patriotism”; “Sonny Stitt”; ten songs by the Trinidad calypso player Lord Melody; “To Dizzy & Lorraine from Lucille & Satch”; “Woody Rehearsal”; “Talking with Bobby Hackett”; “J.P., Wes, John, Russell (baseball)”; “Dizzy Movie Themes”; “Sao Paulo 8-20-56”; “Aircheck–Penthouse 6-13-62”; and “Lalu, Chuck, Leo, Art.” Two with water-damaged cases might still be worth a try: “McIntosh” (likely his 1963 collaborator, trombonist Tom McIntosh), and “Bird.”
Also included are 3 VHS video cassettes: “Do I Do, featured guest artist John Gillespie”; “Olympic gala, Dizzy Gillespie Segment with into” dated 4 August 1984; and a later recording of the 1967 Monterey Jazz Festival. A 3-inch tape is labeled “Jack Paar, 13 March 1961,” and another reads “Dizzy Gillespie sound tape (audio).” A 9½-inch tape is from Radiotelevisione Italiana and features 5 tracks by Italian trumpeter Nunzio Rotondo. An additional 23 reel-to-reels in various formats are unlabeled, and might contain anything from blank static to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Provenance: Dawson & Nye’s Dizzy Gillespie estate sale, 14 September 2005 (copy of the catalog included with the lot).
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
(music.)
Large group of publicity stills and other photographs of noted musicians.
Various places, most 1932-1970s
47 items, condition generally strong.
Highlights include signed photographs of Cab Calloway, the Mills Brothers, Charlie Fuqua of the Ink Spots, tenor Roland Hayes, and Count Basie; publicity photographs of Jimmy Rushing, Jimmie Lunceford, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton, the Ink Spots, and Louis Armstrong; and snapshots or other photographs of Nina Simone, Armstrong (performing at Freedomland in the Bronx, 1960), Joyce Bryant, and Duke Ellington.
Estimate
$700 – $1,000
(theater.) langston hughes and arna bontemps.
Jubilee: A Cavalcade of the Negro Theatre.
[Chicago], [1940]
[3], 53 carbon typescript leaves plus a title page in manuscript (page 4 skipped in pagination). 11 x 8½ inches, bound with 3 staples; moderate soiling and wear to title, otherwise minor wear; title page marked “Arna” in pencil.
” Cavalcade of the Negro Theatre” was originally written as one of the highlights of Chicago’s 1940 American Negro Exposition. It was later reworked by its two original authors for a 1941 showcase production by CBS radio. It was then recorded in 1943 by the War Department for broadcast overseas to the troops.
It features 18 scenes from Congo Square in 1800 New Orleans; to the 1859 play The Octoroon; plantation songs; the Fisk Singers performing for Queen Victoria; the 1890s opera singer Sissieretta Jones, a.k.a. “the Black Patti”; the “Birth of the Blues”; and more. The pages for the final two acts are not present.
This important work was never published. The Schomburg Library holds another typescript, according to “Early Black American Playwrights and Dramatic Writers,” page 111.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
(theater.)
Carte-de-visite portrait of Ira Aldridge as Othello.
No place, undated
Albumen photograph, 3½ x 2¼ inches, of a lithograph, on period plain mount card; minimal wear.
Ira Frederick Aldridge (1807-1867) was a Black actor who was born in New York but emigrated to England in 1824 in search of greater opportunities. He slowly worked his way up through the regional theaters of the United Kingdom, often billing himself as a native of Africa, and 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.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(theater.)
Program for a New York performance of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
New York, 3 November 1877
4 printed pages, 13¾ x 10½ inches, on one folding sheet; folds, minor wear and foxing; attendee’s pencil notes on title page.
This production at New York’s Grand Opera House featured Mr. and Mrs. George C. Howard, who were behind the original 1852 stage adaptation, and continued in their original roles as St. Clair and Topsy.
This program was printed as an issue of “Pleasure Season: Music, Literature and the Fine Arts,” published by J.C. Foreman. It was nominally an independent publication, and boasted of circulation at “all the principal hotels and reading rooms” in the New York area. This issue includes a bit of general theatrical gossip, and two short articles–one of them discussing the present Uncle Tom’s production. Pleasure Season apparently existed to publish Grand Opera House programs and take in advertising revenue, similar to the modern Playbill publication. See Engle and Miller, The American Stage, page 108. This program was annotated by Cort family, who attended the performance: siblings Arthur and Jessie Cort (aged about 15 and 10) and their mother.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(theater.)
Program for the Hyers Sisters in Out of Bondage.
[St. Joseph, MO], 8 November [1886]
2 pages, 11¾ x 8½ inches; cropped on right edge, minor edge wear. minor dampstaining.
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. This independently produced playbill offers an act-by-act synopsis of the plot for Out of Bondage and a full cast list, with numerous local advertisements, and the bill for an unrelated play on verso. Out of Bondage debuted in 1875 or 1876, and was performed in St. Joseph, Missouri on Monday, 8 November 1886.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(theater.) lorraine hansberry.
The actress Juanita Moore’s copy of the script for Raisin in the Sun.
New York: produced by the Hart Stenographic Bureau, 1959
[5], 55, 49, 19 mimeograph leaves, printed on recto only. 4to, 11 x 8½ inches, in original post binder with title stamped in front, moderate wear; moderate to heavy wear to contents; manuscript notes throughout in various hands, with actress Juanita Moore’s signature on title page.
A typescript of the groundbreaking play, the first by a Black woman on Broadway, and the first with a Black director. This copy apparently belonged to the Academy Award-nominated American actress Juanita Moore (1914-2014), who played the role of Mama Lena Younger in the Adelphi Theatre staging of the play in London. It opened in August 1959, a few months after the Broadway debut. Her signature appears above the title, along with more than a dozen other memoranda, some apparently relating to her efforts to find lodging in London. Elwood Smith, who was an understudy in the Broadway production and later played the lead as Walter Younger in the 1960 Boston production, has added his New Orleans address as well. The script is loaded with manuscript notes, some of them apparently in Moore’s hand, and many of them relating to the character of Mama–both elaborations on the stage instructions, and character motivations.
WITH–3 photographs from the London production: one of a scene featuring cast members Olga James, Kim Hamilton, and Juanita Moore, shot by by Reginald Wilson of Houston Rogers Studios, 6 x 4¾ inches; one of the cast’s curtain call, 8 x 10 inches, by George J. Keen; and another of cast members Juanita Moore, Earle Hyman, Kim Hamilton, and Olga James embracing, also 8 x 10 inches, by George J. Keen. All are housed in a worn later envelope bearing Moore’s address.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,500
(theater.)
Poster for the Black Arts Movement play “A Black Time for Black Folk” by Ed Bullins.
New York, 28 August [1970]
Color poster, 22 x 17 inches; moderate wear including horizontal folds and ¾-inch closed tear.
The New Lafayette Theatre was a New York focal point of the Black Arts Movement. Ed Bullins (1935-2021) was the playwright in residence, working with the theater’s director and founder Robert Macbeth. The art for this poster was by Weusi Artist Collective member Bill Howell (1942-1975). No other examples have been traced in OCLC or at auction.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(theater.)
Poster for the Black Arts Movement play “Duplex: A Black Love Fable in Four Movements” by Ed Bullins.
New York, 22 May [1971]
Poster, 22 x 17 inches; minimal wear.
The New Lafayette Theatre was a New York focal point of the Black Arts Movement. Ed Bullins (1935-2021) was the playwright in residence, working with the theater’s director and founder Robert Macbeth. The art for this poster was by Weusi Artist Collective member Ademola Olugebefola. While he is uncredited on the poster, he was credited for the same cover art when the play was published in 1971. No other examples have been traced at auction.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(family papers.)
Family papers of Littleton L. Page of Charles Town, WV, including sons in the Spanish-American War and World War One.
Various places, 1875-1919
32 items (0.4 linear feet) in one box; various sizes and conditions.
Littleton Lorton Page (1850-1914) was born into slavery, and made his way to the Union lines to serve in a Colored Troops unit, taking his name from an officer named Littleton Lorton. After the war, he founded the first school for Black students in Charles Town, WV, and served as a trustee of Storer College in nearby Harpers Ferry; the local high school is named in his honor. Offered here is a lively grouping of his family papers, most of them relating to the military service of his two sons. The collection begins with 4 charming letters from Page to his future wife Georgianna Smith, Charles Town, WV, 1875-1877. One apparently alludes to his initiation into a Masonic group: “I have just returned from the lodge, but have not been hauled over the coals yet. . . . There is not much fun in it for me, but I must stop as I am to tell no secrets.”
Oldest son Henry Littleton “Harry” Page (1880-1954) sends 4 letters while in service during the Spanish-American War while in training camp in Kentucky and Georgia (plus one enclosed letter from a friend). He served in the 8th Immune regiment, raised among Black recruits from Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, and West Virginia in hopes that they might be malaria-resistant. 3 are on patriotic letterhead featuring Admiral George Dewey. After his first payday, Harry wrote on 22 September “As soon as I got my money, I gave it to Lieut. Hill because the boys steal so.” He was appointed regimental orderly, and they were reviewed by Secretary of War Alger, who pronounced them “the best regiment in the state.” In an undated letter, he wrote “I just came off guard last night at the hospital. There are over 350 patients in there with different kinds of diseases. Some are from Santiago de Cuba, shot in different places.” An uncaptioned photograph of a military band appears to date from this period and may include Harry. Also included are 3 postcards addressed to Harry from sister Cerelle and a friend in 1908 while he was traveling with Stetson’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin theatrical troupe.
Second son Gouverneur Morris “G.M.” Page (1890-1958) wrote several letters home. 3 were written while a student at Storer College, WV, 1905-1906. The big excitement on 1 March 1906 was a fellow student in the mail room “rifling the letters and they caught him. He took in about forty dollars.” G.M. enlisted in for service in World War One with the 803rd Infantry. 10 letters and postcards were written from training camp at Camp Custer, MI; Camp Upton, NY; and “somewhere in Canada.” On 12 August 1918 he wrote “I don’t find anything so hard about it. The main thing is to be punctual, obey orders and whatever you do, do it with a snap. Tomorrow I think we begin bayonet drill. . . . This is certainly some bunch of colored folks in this company. . . . I have one fellow whose name is Peter Lukey and he is a young giant from the mountains of W. Va, 20 yrs old, can’t read and write, and guesses at his age from what somebody told him. There are some fellows here who don’t know what their mother’s name is, and don’t know one letter from another.” On 20 August he writes “I was selected as a candidate for officers training camp, but my heart was slightly irregular Sunday when I was examined and don’t expect to pass; the physical examination for the officers camp was about five times more rigid than the one we took when we first came here.”
These camp letters are followed by 8 letters and 2 postcards which G.M. wrote from France, 30 October 1918 to 12 February 1919. In his first, he jabs at his brother: “Tell Harry I expect I will have a few things to tell him about soldiering when I get back. He used to talk about the Spanish American War, well that was a scrimmage compared to this.” On 18 November he writes his mother with alarm: “Cerelle told me you were trying to catch the influenza, but I hope you have not succeeded. . . . I am sorry so many deaths have occurred from the influenza.” On 2 December he described a “place today that at one time had been a woods, but now not a tree is left, and not an inch of ground which has not been rooted up by shells.” On 12 February 1919, after the censors had lightened up, he offered more details on his service: “Yes, we were up in the Toul sector and the St. Mihiel sector, up near Verdun and the Argonne. . . . Seen German planes brought down, balloons on fire . . . It was a terrible one and I hope there will be no more like it in my time at least.” Also included are G.M.’s certificate to practice law in the District of Columbia, 1922; and his baptismal certificate from 1945.
Finally, the collection contains a photo album presented by Littleton Page to his sweetheart Georgia in 1877. It begins with two small penny photos from Charles Town, very likely depicting Littleton and Georgia. They are followed by 16 unidentified tintypes and cartes-de-visite of Black sitters, followed by 10 others of white sitters. Most of the latter portraits are quite defaced.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
(family papers.)
Family album of a 1950s California auto plant worker and avid hunter.
California, 1948-1964 and undated
51 photographs and 4 other documents mounted with corners on 8 scrapbook leaves. Oblong 4to, 8¾ x 11 inches, hinged wooden boards, skillfully home-made, one screw replaced, minimal wear; minimal wear to contents.
These photographs depict the family of a Black California union auto worker living the 1950s blue-collar American Dream: new cars, stylish outfits, and wholesome recreation. Several depict the compiler and his friends on hunting expeditions, posing with rifles, deer, game birds, and even a raccoon. In one image, an impeccably dressed little girl holds up the head of a deer carcass on her lawn.
4 personal documents give us the compiler’s name and occupation. A 1948 hunting license places him in Richmond, CA. A 1961 interim driver’s license places his residence in Oakland, and two pay stubs (1953 and undated) show him employed at the Ford Motors plant in San Jose, CA.
Laid into the rear of the volume is a 19 September 1964 strike notice for Local 560 of the United Auto Workers at the Ford plant in nearby Milpitas, CA, explaining the union’s strike procedures. The national union signed a new contract that morning, averting a national strike with just 55 minutes to spare.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(fraternal.)
Pennant for Louisville’s elite Menelek Club.
Louisville, KY, circa late 1920s
Felt pennant, 11 x 26¾ inches, with letters sewn on; lacking upper tie, several small holes, somewhat faded and discolored.
The Menelek Club, named after an emperor of Ethiopia, had a short window as the center of Louisville’s high society. Its formal opening was on 1 July 1926, and it was frequently discussed in the “Louisville’s Elite” column of the Pittsburgh Courier for the next three years. On 22 January 1927, they announced that “the Menelek Club is rapidly becoming the social center of many of the prominent young men of Louisville.” On 7 September 1929, they held a “grand reception and ball” and “the name Menelek Club like a magnet attracted the elite from far and near.” We find only one mention of the club’s activities after the Great Depression hit in October 1929, when they hosted a dinner for the Kentucky Negro Education Association in 1932.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(haiti.)
Vincent Ogé, Jeune Colon de St. Domingue.
No place, circa 1791
Mezzotint portrait, 5¼ x 4½ inches; moderate foxing and mat toning; uncut.
Vincent Ogé (1755-1791) was a wealthy free mulatto who led a 1790 revolt to secure voting rights for free men of color in Haiti, ending in his torture and execution in February 1791, just months before the large uprisings that led to the Haitian Revolution. The full caption reads “Vincent Ogé, jeune colon de St Domingue, il aime la liberté comme il sait la defendre”–a young colonist from Saint-Domingue who loves his freedom and knows how to defend it. The engraver was Gilles-Louis Chrétien, working from a physiognotrace portrait by Jean-Baptiste Fouquet.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(history.) frank cieciorka, artist.
Portrait of Nat Turner.
San Francisco, CA: Movement Press, [December 1969]
Poster, 23 x 17½ inches; minimal wear.
Cieciorka created this portrait in 1965 for his SNCC freedom school primer ”Negroes in American History” (see lot 209). According to the Oakland Museum of California, it was produced in this poster form in December 1969, offered for $1, or 75¢ for subscribers.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(history.)
Peoples Drug Store: Martyrs in the Fight for Freedom.
Washington: Peoples Drug Store, 1970
8 pages, 8¾ x 5½ inches, on one folding sheet; minimal wear.
Photographs of about 90 heroes throughout history, including a front-page spread of martyrs from Attucks to King, demonstrating that “in spite of constant adversity, slavery and exploitation, the Negro has, throughout history, been a prominent contributor to the progress and cultural development of humanity.” One traced in OCLC, at Emory.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(history.)
Harambee: Your Black Calendar 1971.
New York and Washington: Pride Economic Enterprises, 1970
12 pages plus front and rear covers on slightly heavier stock. Comb binding, 19 x 14 inches; moderate wear to plastic binding; December sheet coming detached with small hole in image, otherwise minor wear.
Each month features a black and white illustration, mostly portraits: Angela Davis, Frederick Douglass, Jean Point du Sable, Marion Barry, a group portrait of Martin Luther King and others titled “Memorial Day,” Medgar and Charles Evers, Gamal Abdel Nasser, “Pride Day,” John Coltrane, Muhammad Ali, Nat Turner, and a Kwanzaa scene titled “First Fruits.” Most are unattributed, and some are signed “Battle,” “Chico,” or “Iyvs.” Most of the days on the calendar are marked with important historical events. None traced at auction or in OCLC.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(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 others at auction.
Estimate
$250 – $350
Martin Luther King
(martin luther king.)
Flier announcing a lecture by Martin Luther King in Puerto Rico.
[Puerto Rico], 16 February [1962]
Two-sided flier, 9 x 7 inches, with original portrait of King and English-language text on recto, and more extensive Spanish text on verso; minor foxing and wear.
King went to Puerto Rico in February 1962 for a four-day lecture tour sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and by the Inter-American University in San Germán on 14 and 15 February, which had been the first stop on his tour. This talk, given at another university’s theater the following evening, was titled “The Challenge of the New Age,” given in English with a Spanish translator. He is credited for organizing sit-ins against segregation using the non-violent techniques of Gandhi.
The portrait bears the printed signature of notable Puerto Rican artist Rafael Tufiño (1922-2008), widely known as “The People’s Painter.”
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(martin luther king.)
Photographs of an interfaith church service just before the Albany Movement’s final prayer vigil and arrests.
Albany, GA, [28 August 1962]
7 photographs (including one duplicate), each 8 x 10 inches, with inked stamps of photographer A. Bruce Goldman and short pencil captions on verso; crop marks on one print, otherwise minor wear.
These photographs were taken just before the climax of the Albany Movement, Dr. King’s campaign to bring racial justice to the town of Albany, GA. Dozens of Jewish and Protestant clergymen from across the country gathered to hear King speak, After this gathering, they held a prayer vigil at Albany’s city hall, which led to their arrest.
One of these photographs (marked with crop marks for use by the Village Voice of New York) shows King alone at the pulpit. Another (also present in duplicate) shows King at the pulpit with others as the clergymen bow their heads in prayer. Another shows the movement’s local leader, Dr. William Gilchrist Anderson, seated alone by the church organ. One shows a group of 4 singers, and one pans over the solemn congregation. Finally, one shows a police car parked in front of the city hall where the vigil and arrests would soon take place.
These photographs were taken at Albany’s Bethel A.M.E. Church by A. Bruce Goldman (1935-2020), a rabbi and accomplished amateur photographer from Paramus, NJ who went to Albany on 26 August and was one of 69 clergymen arrested on 28 August, spending 3 days in jail. Three of his photographs from his trip (although none of the present group) appeared in the Hackensack (NJ) Record of 5 September 1962. One of them showing King at Shiloh in the same white tie is captioned “King addresses clergymen before they marched to City Hall where they were arrested.” Goldman’s account of these events was published as “Quest for Freedom in Albany’s Jails” in the 4 October 1962 Village Voice, and later gathered in the Village Voice Anthology (1982), pages 21-24.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Martin luther king.
Short personal letter to a Chicago civil rights leader.
Atlanta, GA, 6 December 1962
Letter Signed as “Martin L. King Jr.” on Southern Christian Leadership Conference letterhead to Dr. Herbert A. Turner of Chicago. One page, 11 x 8½ inches; mailing folds, minor dampstaining.
“This is just a hurriedly written note to acknowledge receipt of your very kind letter of recent date. It is always a pleasure to hear from you and to know that you are all right. I expect to be in Chicago for the Conference on Religion and Race which begins on January 14 and if it is at all possible, I will certainly call you while I am there. It will be very stimulating to discuss some of the issues of our day with you.”
Dr. King’s correspondent was Dr. Herbert A. Turner (1884-1973), a pediatric surgeon who had led Chicago’s branches of the Urban League and NAACP.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
(martin luther king.)
Freedom Fighter Award issued to a supporter of King’s work.
Chicago, 5 August 1963
Illustrated certificate, 12 x 9 inches, completed for recipient Etta Moten, and signed by sponsor Mahalia Jackson and chairman Ike Sutton; minor wear and browning at edges.
These certificates were awarded to backers of the Chicago Freedom Fund Festival which was staged to benefit King’s work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson was the primary force behind the festival. The certificate is illustrated with her portrait next to King’s. The recipient was Etta Moten Barnett (1901-2004), a star singer and actress from the 1930s who was married to influential newspaperman Claude Barnett of the Associated Negro Press.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(martin luther king.)
An Appeal to You . . . to March on Washington.
New York, 1963
Printed handbill, 8 x 5½ inches; minimal wear.
A call to join the March on Washington, in an appeal from Martin Luther King, John Lewis, and 8 other march organizers. It lays out the demands of the marchers and directs them: “You can get information on how to go to Washington by calling civil rights organizations, religious organizations, trade unions, fraternal organizations and youth groups.”
Estimate
$600 – $900
Martin luther king.
His signature on the jacket of the LP “March on Washington: The Official Album.”
New York: Riverside Radio, 1963
Illustrated jacket, 12½ x 12¼ inches, printed in red and black; some wear including separations at top and bottom, ½-inch image loss at center, and minor dampstaining; signed “Martin Luther King Jr.” over the album title. With original worn plain sleeve; 12-inch album (a few light scratches, label coming detached); and “Lincoln Memorial Pledge” insert, 11 x 8½ inches.
This album features the famous “I Have a Dream” speech which Dr. King delivered at the 28 August 1963 March on Washington. It also features 11 other speeches by the fellow Civil Rights leaders who collaborated with King on the march. The verso of the jacket features portraits and short biographies of the ten main leaders including King.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
(martin luther king.)
Group of snapshots depicting a 1965 visit from King, and the 1968 Memphis march in his honor.
Various places, 1965-1968 and undated
7 photographs, various sizes; minor wear.
Two of these photographs depict a 28 April 1965 visit by Dr. King to Rock Island, IL in the wake of a record-setting Mississippi River flood. In both he is seen talking with area residents at the Prince Hall Masonic and Order of the Eastern Star Home. One of them also shows the Rev. Ralph Abernathy from behind. Both are carefully captioned on verso by Jeanette Hannah, matron of the home. They are accompanied by 3 period duplicate prints; all are about 4½ x 6½ inches.
Two other photographs show the march in Memphis on 8 April 1968, just 4 days after King’s assassination. One 4 x 5-inch image shows marchers on a suburban sidewalk, several of them holding the iconic “Honor King, End Racism” posters. The other, 5 x 7 inches, shows 4 students from Western Illinois University posed in front of an ABC camera. Both are captioned and dated on verso.
WITH–two small earlier portraits of possibly unrelated women, one of them captioned by name.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(martin luther king.)
Students, Join with Dr. Martin Luther King in the First Negro National Freedom Day.
Double-sized illustrated handbill, 8¼ x 5½ inches; minimal wear.
Dr. King devoted much of 1966 to the Chicago Freedom Movement. The allied Student Union Organizing Committee of Chicago organized a one-day school boycott to protest continuing segregation upon the 12-year anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. We find no other material from this event in OCLC or at auction.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
(martin luther king.)
Take 2 Steps to Freedom: Register, Vote.
Double-sided handbill, 11 x 8½ inches; horizontal fold, minimal wear.
This appeal for voter registration was issued as part of King’s 1966 Chicago Freedom Movement, in conjunction with the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations and its leader Al Raby. The two footprints evoke the iconic 1960 “March for Freedom Now” protest poster.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(martin luther king.)
Autographed program for a Chicago tribute to Dr. King.
Chicago, 10 December 1967
4 pages, 9 x 6 inches, on one folding sheet of glossy stock, signed “Best Wishes, Martin Luther King” next to a small photograph of King; minimal soiling and wear.
This event was billed as “A Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.,” and was the annual dinner of the Joint Negro Appeal of Chicago. This program includes a short biography of King, and the night’s speaking program. King was introduced by his friend Cirilo McSween, director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and just a few months later one of King’s pallbearers. The rear page lists the officers and directors of the Negro Appeal, including future congressman Ralph Metcalfe, and baseball icon Ernie Banks. The program was signed for the consignor’s father, who was a friend of several Appeal directors.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
(martin luther king.)
Bumper sticker reading “I Have a Dream: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Los Angeles, CA: Southern Christian Leadership Conference, circa 1968
Bumper sticker, 4 x 13 inches; light toning.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(martin luther king.)
April 5 1968.
No place, 1968
Poster, 32¾ x 22 inches; minimal wear.
Brooding art juxtaposed with ineffectual comments which might have been spouted the day after the King assassination: “We all mourn . . . a great American”; “What can we whites do?”; “I called to say I’m sorry”; “Why must you riot?” We trace no other copies in OCLC or at auction.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(labor.)
Group portrait of Black firemen at Engine Company No. 30 in Los Angeles.
[Los Angeles, CA, circa 1924]
Photograph, 8 x 32 inches; minor wear, formerly rolled; photographer’s credit on verso in pencil in a later hand: “Chas. Bailey Photo., 1022 W. 1st St., L.A.”
A group portrait of an early all-Black fire company. 24 firemen and 4 officers are posed in front of Engine Company No. 30 at 1401 South Central Avenue in Los Angeles. The photograph is not captioned but the building’s facade is easily recognizable, as it remains the home of the African-American Firefighter Museum today. The city’s segregated fire department concentrated their growing number of Black personnel at this location in 1924, an occasion which we suspect this portrait commemorates.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(labor.)
Group of Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters working cards and employee ride passes.
Various places, 1928-1948
22 printed cards completed in typescript and signed by various officials, each about 2½ x 4 inches; most with only minor wear.
These cards were issued to Marshall M. Harris, who progressed from waiter to cook to parlor car porter on the Alton Railroad Company and related lines, which ran from Kansas City to Chicago. Included are:
3 working cards from the powerful trade union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, each signed by secretary-treasurer Ernest Smith and bearing the name of president A. Philip Randolph, 1939-1940.
13 employee ride passes issued to Harris by the railroad, some naming him as “colored” and each giving his position, 1928-1948.
6 ride passes issued to his wife Gertrude Harris by the railroad, 1932-1938.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(law.) wentworth cheswell.
Document signed by the nation’s first Black elected official.
Newmarket, NH, 24 July 1812
Partly-printed Document Signed twice, “Wentworth Cheswill” and again as “WCheswill” on verso. 2 pages, 12¾ x 7¾ inches, including receipt and docketing on verso; minor wear at intersection of folds, spot of dampstaining.
Wentworth Cheswell (1746-1817) was the grandson of an African-American who had been freed from slavery, in addition to his three-quarters European ancestry. He went on to a successful career in Newmarket, NH as a teacher, farmer, and clerk. At the outbreak of the Revolution, he rode to the colonial capital to convey Paul Revere’s warning, and then served for two years in a New Hampshire regiment. In his lifetime, he was variously described as white, yellow, or mulatto; he is now generally regarded as the first African-American to hold elected office. He was regularly elected by his townsmen to the offices of constable, selectman, auditor, and other positions from 1768 until his death. Cheswell was elected as a Justice of the Peace for Rockingham County, NH in 1805.
This document is a writ issued by Cheswell for the sheriff to collect a debt owed by Richard Hilton of Newmarket, NH. If Hilton failed to cover the debt, Cheswell authorized the sheriff “to take the body of the said Hilton and him commit unto our Jail.” The debt was settled two months later. Cheswell was probably the only man of acknowledged African ancestry to routinely wield this level of legal authority in America during this period. Macon Bolling Allen, often mistakenly called the first Black justice of the peace, was not elected until 1844.
Estimate
$250 – $350
Literature
(literature.) phillis wheatley.
Hymn to the Morning,
London, September 1773
in the September 1773 issue of The London Magazine. Pages [417]-468. 8vo, disbound; with the folding music plate but lacking the 2 other plates (none of them relating to Wheatley), minimal wear.
Features a short review of Wheatley’s recently published “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral”: “When we consider them as the productions of a young untutored African, who wrote them after six months casual study of the English language and of writing, we cannot suppress our admiration of talents so vigorous and lively. . . . As our readers may be curious enough to wish for a specimen of this Afric Muse’s poetry, we subjoin the following.” This is followed by her poem “Hymn to the Morning.”
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
(literature.)
Three issues of the important Anglo-African Magazine.
New York: Thomas Hamilton, February, March, and May 1859
[32]-64; [65]-96; [129]-160 pages. 3 issues. Tall 8vo, original printed wrappers, worn, February issue lacking rear wrappers, May issue re-stapled; edge chipping to contents, final page of March issue chipped with some loss of text, dampstaining and a tape repair to May issue; name of subscriber Charles Bustill inscribed on front wrappers of March and May issues.
The Anglo-African Magazine was short-lived but included contributions from some of the nineteenth century’s most important Black writers. These issues contain the first, second and fourth installments of Martin R. Delany’s serialized adventure novel of slave revolts, “Blake, or the Huts of America.” His short scientific article on comets also appears in the February issue, as does an essay by A.M.E. bishop Daniel Payne. The first Black American pharmacist, James McCune Smith, indulges in a bit of scientific ethnic prejudice in pronouncing the massive wave of German immigration superior to the Irish in his two-part “German Invasion” (February and March). Other highlights include Robert Campbell on “Struggles for Freedom in Jamaica” in the March issue. The May issue contains two pieces by important early Black women authors: “A Good Habit Recommended” by Sarah Mapps Douglass and “Our Greatest Want” by Frances Ellen Watkins.
Provenance: Charles Hicks Bustill (circa 1815-1890) of Philadelphia, conductor on the Underground Railroad and Paul Robeson’s maternal grandfather. His first cousin Sarah Mapps Douglasss was a contributor to the magazine.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(literature.) william wells brown.
Manuscript draft of a passage from his My Southern Home.
No place, circa late 1870s
4 manuscript pages on 2 leaves, 7x 4¼ inches and a 4¾ x 4½-inch fragment; both apparently torn from a notebook, with ink blots and corrections but otherwise no apparent wear.
Born into slavery in Kentucky, William Wells Brown (circa 1814-1884) escaped at the age of 19 and became a prominent author and abolitionist. His Clotel is regarded as the first novel by an African American. In his later years in Boston, his second wife Annie Elizabeth Gray Brown (1835-1902) managed the family publishing company, while Brown practiced homeopathic medicine. His final book, My Southern Home, was a fictionalized memoir.
The present manuscript is a rough draft of one comic passage in the book, in which the master Dr. Gaines deputizes his slave Cato to serve as physician in his absence. Cato attempts to pull the tooth of another enslaved man, but pulls the wrong one. Brown had published at least three variants of this “Negro Dentist” story before, but this manuscript contains elements unique to the version in My Southern Home, pages 30-31. On the verso of the second page are a few completely unrelated lines on the Napoleonic Wars in the same hand.
The manuscript is discussed at length in Ezra Greenspan’s recent biography of Brown (see below): “The scene of Sam as the Black Doctor is the nearly unique instance in which a manuscript documenting Brown’s compositional practice survives . . . written in an unidentified hand (perhaps Annie’s). The manuscript is undated, but it was very likely written in the late 1870s as a trial draft for a scene in chapter 3 of My Southern Home. Although the entire scene derives from Act 1, Scene 2, of The Escape, it introduces new details and language that exactly match the text of My Southern Home, as when Dr. Gaines is described sarcastically as ‘saluting [Cato] in his usual kind and indulgent manner’ before tasking him” (page 497). Greenspan saw the manuscript in the private collection of the consignor, who is named in the footnotes on page 573. The first page is reproduced in Greenspan’s book in a plate facing page 281.
WITH–William Wells Brown. “My Southern Home: or, The South and Its People.” Frontispiece portrait. vii, [1], 253, [3] pages including a leaf of advertisements for other books by the author. 8vo, publisher’s gilt cloth, minor wear; minimal dampstaining, generally clean and fresh with no ownership markings. This is not only the first edition of the work in question–it is the copy in which the manuscript was found. The start of the relevant passage on page 29 bears a faint pencil check mark, suggesting that the original owner had compared the manuscript with the printed text. Boston: A.G. Brown & Co. (Brown’s wife), 1880.
AND–Ezra Greenspan’s “William Wells Brown: An African American Life,” which discusses the manuscript and reproduces a page from it. New York, [2014].
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
(literature.) lewis howard latimer.
Poems of Love and Life.
[New York], 1925
3 portrait plates tipped in as issued. [26] printed pages on folded leaves, plus 6 blank leaves and endpapers. 4to, original limp calf with gilt title, quite worn, needs rebinding; light soiling and minimal wear to contents; uncut and unopened, #39 of a limited edition of 50, signed and inscribed “To the Hest family with compliments of the author L.H. Latimer.”
First and only edition, one of only fifty copies printed on Italian hand-made paper. Lewis Howard Latimer (1848-1928) was born near Boston; his parents had recently escaped from slavery and gained fame in abolitionist circles. Lewis joined the Navy during the Civil War and became a draftsman, then went on to a notable career as an inventor. Working for Alexander Graham Bell, he drafted the patent drawings for the telephone; he went to work for Thomas Edison in 1884. He was responsible for numerous patents in lighting, refrigeration, and more; in 1890 he wrote the first book on electric lighting. He is a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and his house in Queens, NY is a designated city landmark.
In addition to his impressive career as an inventor, Latimer was a well-rounded renaissance man: he taught English classes to immigrants, played violin, and wrote plays and poems. The present volume contains 22 of his poems which were collected by his friends and published on the occasion of his 77th birthday. The first 11 pieces, “Poems of Love,” were dedicated to his late wife Mary, such as “The Ebon Venus.” The other 11,”Poems of Life,” are prefaced with a plate showing Latimer’s two daughters as infants and adults.
Provenance: inscribed to the Hest family on the limitation page. A New York Age article on the Latimers’ golden wedding anniversary party (1 December 1923) lists among the guests “Mrs. Hest and Miss R. Hest.” According to the 1920 census, Ida Hest (born circa 1867) was a Russian immigrant who lived in the Bronx with her New York-born daughter Rose (born circa 1900), who worked as a messenger for a stockbroker.
3 in OCLC, and only one other traced at auction, at Swann, 25 February 2010, lot 266.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(literature.) alain locke, editor.
The New Negro: An Interpretation.
New York, 1925
17 plates (many in color) by Winold Reiss; numerous text illustrations by Aaron Douglas, Covarrubias and others. xviii, 452 pages. 8vo, original art-deco style cloth-backed paper-covered boards, minor wear; minimal wear to contents; original owner’s inscription and gift bookplate to a church library on front endpapers.
First edition of this important compilation of the arts in Harlem in 1925, with contributions from a virtual who’s who of African American arts and letters. “Both visual splendor and stirring documentary. . . . One of the most sought-after works of the Harlem Renaissance. . . . Locke’s positions on ancestral legacy and his emphasis on African and folk contributions anticipated the posture of the militant and revolutionary thinking of the 1960s”–Blockson, One Hundred and One 64.
Estimate
$300 – $400
(literature.) mercedes gilbert.
Aunt Sara’s Wooden God,
Boston: Christopher Publishing, [1938]
with a related playbill. Frontispiece portrait. 271 pages. 8vo, publisher’s cloth, minimal wear; minimal wear to contents.
First edition. The novelist and actress Mercedes Gilbert (1894-1952) probably met Langston Hughes through her theatrical work, and he wrote the foreword to this novel, describing it as “an authentic, every-day story of thousands of little families below the Mason-Dixon line, bound to the soil by poverty and blackness.” “Miscegenation; the conflict between two half-brothers, sons of a white and Negro father”–Whiteman, page 24.
WITH–a Vanderbilt Theatre playbill for a Langston Hughes play, “Mulatto”–and starring Mercedes Gilbert as Cora Lewis. This could possibly be how Hughes and Gilbert met, two years before he wrote the foreword to “Aunt Sara’s Wooden God.” 12 pages, 4to, minimal wear. [New York], [1936].
Estimate
$300 – $400
(literature.) nancy cunard; editor.
Negro Anthology.
London: Nancy Cunard at Wishart & Co., 1934
Folding map of Africa, numerous illustrations. viii, 580, iii, [581]-854, [2] pages. Folio, publisher’s cloth with title in red on front board and map of “The Black Belt of America” on rear board, minor wear, tastefully rebacked with most of original backstrip laid down; edge conservation and repaired tears to about 20 leaves, a few other unrepaired closed tears and chips; bookplates of Associated Negro Press founder Claude A. Barnett laid down on renewed front and rear pastedowns.
First edition. This monumental anthology presents virtually every aspect of Black life and letters emerging from the decades following World War One in a virtually encyclopedic format. It features work by Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Arthur Schomburg, Alain Locke, and W.E.B. Du Bois; essays on everyone from Phyllis Wheatley to Frederick Douglass to Josephine Baker; hard-hitting essays on the slave trade, lynching, prison labor, Scottsboro, and the Klan; a directory of “Some Negro Slang”; and coverage of current developments in Africa and the West Indies. A substantial portion of the original edition of 1000 are said to have been lost in a German bombing raid on London. “Virtually unobtainable. . . . However, no comprehensive African American library is complete without it”–Blockson One Hundred and One, 71.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
(literature.) langston hughes.
Shakespeare in Harlem.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1942
Several full-page illustrations. [13], 124, [1] pages. 8vo, publisher’s cloth, minimal wear; in later-edition dust jacket with minimal wear; signed and inscribed by the author on front free endpaper “To Evelyn Ehrlich, sincerely, Langston Hughes.”
First edition of this collection of verse.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(literature.) langston hughes.
Montage of a Dream Deferred.
New York: Henry Holt and Company, [1951]
[16], 75 pages. 8vo, publisher’s cloth, minimal wear, a bit sunned on backstrip; hinges split; in original dust jacket with minor wear, browned on backstrip; warmly signed and inscribed on the front free endpaper to the far-left integrated National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards.
First edition of this important poem suite, best known for “Harlem”: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?” (page 71). However, in this copy, “Freedom Train” is highlighted–it is mentioned in the inscription, and underlined in the table of contents.
The inscription reads “To the National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards San Francisco Office, these poems of the Freedom Train, sincerely, Langston Hughes, New York, May 1, 1951.”
The National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards represented workers on the west coast and in Hawaii. They were noteworthy on several fronts, and in 1951 had been recently in the news. An integrated union, its membership was thought to be about 50% Black and 25% Asian. They have also gained recognition for their involvement in the early LGBTQ movement, with many openly gay members and a sign in their union hall reading “No Race Baiting, Red-Baiting, or Queer Baiting.” Their leadership and many of their members were leftists, and were expelled from the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1950 for their Communist ties. During a difficult time for this progressive union, Hughes apparently sent his new book as a message of support from across the country–making it a fascinating association copy.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
(literature.) langston hughes.
Signed program from his appearance at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival.
Stratford, ON, 23 July 1958
4 pages, 10 x 7 inches, on one folding sheet; folds, otherwise minimal wear; signed and inscribed on front page “Dear Hans, it was so nice to have your wire on the Long John Show. Langston.”
The Stratford Shakespearean Festival in southern Ontario, Canada, has long featured a wide variety of performances in addition to Shakespeare. This 1958 program is for a jazz performance by Henry “Red” Allen and His All-Stars as accompanists to a spoken-work performance by Langston Hughes of his poetry.
Four days earlier, Hughes was in New York for a late-night reading of his work on the Long John radio talk show on WOR, which the Daily News of 21 July 1958 called “pure verbal magic.”
Estimate
$400 – $600
(literature.)
High school yearbook of Lorraine Hansberry and Sam Greenlee, inscribed by each.
Chicago, January 1948
Issue of “The Purple and White,” the yearbook of Englewood High School in Chicago. [3]-124 pages. 4to, original gilt pictorial cloth, minor wear; lacking first leaf (half-title?); inscribed by dozens of classmates and staff on the appropriate pages or rear flyleaves.
Lorraine Vivian Hansberry is pictured on page 36 among her high school’s February midyear graduates, credited as “President, Forum; Gym secretary.” Her ambition: “To be a journalist.” She has inscribed the book “Good luck & success, ‘48” with an arrow pointing to her name. She can also be seen on page 105 in the group portrait of the school’s debate forum. Although Hansberry was just 11 years away from being the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway, she is not to be found on the rolls of the school’s drama club on pages 90-94.
One nationally renowned author would be more than a typical high school class would have a right to expect. However, Samuel E. Greenlee, Jr. also appears on page 55, among the expected June graduates, noting his membership on the track team and a desire “to excel in law.” He has inscribed the book “Good luck and best wishes, Samuel E. Greenlee Jr.” He can also be seen with the track team on page 117; he won a track scholarship to the University of Wisconsin. His 1969 novel “The Spook Who Sat by The Door,” about a renegade Black C.I.A. operative, was later made into a successful film.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(literature.)
Papers of author Joe C. Brown, a lifelong friend of Richard Wright.
Various places, 1933-1993
Thousands of pages (1.4 linear feet) in two boxes, including manuscripts, correspondence, and original art; condition varies but generally worn.
Joseph Clifton Brown (1908-1993) was an author, educator, and artist who was usually known as Joe C. Brown. Born and raised in Mississippi, he was an instructor and principal at three Mississippi schools before heading north to Chicago in 1948 with his wife and children. There he did data processing for the Department of Labor, wrote a column for the Chicago World, stayed active in the civil rights movement, and pursued his creative endeavors on the side, retiring in 1976.
Brown is best known to history as a close lifelong friend of the author Richard Wright; he also knew the author William Faulkner, who became a literary mentor. Kent State University Library published Wright’s letters to him in 1968 as “Letters to Joe C. Brown.” This large and wide-ranging archive does not include Wright’s original letters, but it includes much more.
The bulk of this collection consists of drafts and fragments of Brown’s poetry, fiction, and essays, including a long series of aphorisms and anecdotes under the title “Homeboy Says.” One highlight is a fragment of his memoir of Richard Wright, sharing his memories of “Dick’s” mother and Aunt Maggie. A notebook kept at Rust College in 1941 includes a draft of a letter from Brown to Wright dated 19 June 1941: “Say, Dick, we have a course here in American Negro Literature and Dick Wright’s Native Son is the class discussion.”
Brown’s memories of William Faulkner are recorded in 3 drafts of his essay “The Faulkner I Met in the Red Hills.” Records on the sale of two letters from Faulkner are also included.
The collection includes little from his Mississippi days, other than several worn leaves from a scrapbook dating from 1933 to 1940, including a typed letter from Claude A. Barnett of the Associated Negro Press recruiting him as a Mississippi correspondent, and other letters relating to his work as a school principal. After moving to Chicago, Brown remained involved in education, including extensive work with a group promoting a Black history curriculum.
Brown’s correspondence file contains letters from Wright’s biographer Constance Webb, editor Horace Cayton, poet Dudley Randall, Sun Ra trumpeter Philip Cohran, and more.
Brown was not known as an artist, but was a prolific amateur with some talent. This lot includes 65 pieces of his work, some of it worn or dampstained, most of it boldly colored and somewhat abstract, 1975 to 1983 and undated.
Ephemera in the collection includes a worn flier for an “All-Day Vote Caravan” in Chicago featuring Martin Luther King and John Lewis, 29 October 1964; a pamphlet titled “Mississippi’s Rural Negro Schools” from 1939; a flier for the Frank London Brown Negro History Club, 18 March 1967; and an Operation Breadbasket program featuring Jesse Jackson, 28 August 1971. Finally, two of his printed poems issued by the Broadside Press of Detroit are included: “Ghetto Manchild” (1966) and “But Not Like Yesterday” (1968). The well-known journalist Horace R. Cayton has inscribed a copy of the latter: “The moving lines of Joe Brown’s tribute to Martin Luther King at the time of his death revitalized in me my own feelings of anguish, shock, hope, and a new steeled dedication.”
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
(malcolm x.) avery clayton.
“Only those who have experienced a revolution within themselves can reach out effectively to help others.”
Los Angeles: Creative Concepts, 1986
Poster, 23 x 17½ inches; minor soiling and wrinkling, light mat toning, mount remnants on verso; #74 of 100, signed and numbered by the artist in pencil.
The artist Avery Clayton (1947-2009) graduated from UCLA with an art degree, served in the Vietnam War, and later founded the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Cultural Center. No other examples of this limited-edition print have been traced in institutions or at auction.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Military
(american revolution.)
The old master of manumitted slave Brister Warner claims his back pay.
East Haddam and Hartford, CT, April-June 1781
Manuscript document, 5 x 9¼ inches, and partly-printed document, 5¼ x 7 inches; folds, minor foxing.
Brister or Bristol Warner was manumitted by his master Daniel Warner (1717-1801) in East Haddam, CT, and immediately enlisted in the 7th Connecticut Regiment in June 1777. The regiment fought in the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown that summer, contesting with the British over the possession of Philadelphia. Brister died in the service on 11 January 1778. Three years later, his former master successfully asked to receive the dead soldier’s back pay–as seen in these documents.
These documents begin with testimony from the selectmen of the town of East Haddam, CT on 19 April 1781: “Daniel Warner’s Negro man named Brister of East Haddam served in the Seventh Battalion in the Connecticutt Line of Continental Troops untill his death, being inlisted for three years. The said Brister had his freedom from his said master, but was not made free by any law of this state, but his said master stood accountable for his maintenance in case he had ever come to want.” On the back, on 14 June 1781, Warner asks the selectmen to submit an order to the state “for the sum that shall be found to be due for the within named Brister’s service as a soldier.”
The second document is a receipt signed the next day by Warner’s agent Robert Hungerford to the Pay Table Committee for “the payment of eight pounds, three shillings, & two pence [to] Daniel Warner, master & owner of a Negro man named Bristol.”
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
(american revolution.)
Pay document signed by 15 soldiers of the 1st Connecticut Regiment, including Prince Hotchkiss.
Camp Highlands, NY, 7 August 1782
Manuscript document signed by 15 soldiers and twice by their commanding officer Major David Smith. One page, 8½ x 8 inches; folds, minor foxing.
In January 1781, two old Connecticut regiments (the 1st and 8th) were merged together as the 1st Connecticut Regiment. 18 months later, the state got around to paying off the men from these regiments. Offered here is a list of the 15 men remaining in the merged regiment who were still due money, who each signed their names. At least one of them, Prince Hotchkiss of the old 8th Regiment going back to 1777, was a Black soldier; he signed here with a X. He remained in the army through the close of the war.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
(american revolution.)
Order to pay the estate of deceased Connecticut soldier Prince Free.
[Hartford, CT], 29 June 1783
Partly-printed Document Signed by Oliver Wolcott Jr. One page, 6½ x 8½ inches, with receipt and docketing on verso; folds, minimal offsetting.
Prince Free enlisted as a private in the 1st Connecticut Regiment in May 1777. Muster rolls from the regiment show that he was on the sick rolls from November until his death on 6 January 1778. This document is an order for the Connecticut treasurer to pay the administrator of Free’s estate, Enoch Lord, “seven pounds nine shillings and ten pence lawf’l money, being the balance found due to him for Service in the Continental Army, before the year 1780.” The order is signed by Oliver Wolcott Jr. of the Pay-Table Office; he later served as United States Secretary of the Treasury and Governor of Connecticut.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
(american revolution.)
The Trial of the British Soldiers, of the 29th Regiment of Foot, for the Murder of Crispus Attucks. . . .
Boston: William Emmons, 1824
146 pages. 12mo, contemporary tree calf, minor wear; front hinge split, minimal wear to contents; early owner’s signature on front and rear free endpapers.
Third edition of the Boston Massacre trial testimony, after editions of 1770 and 1807. Includes ample testimony on the death of Crispus Attucks, the sailor of African and American Indian ancestry who took two British bullets, and was the first to die that day. Sabin 96946.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(war of 1812)
A spy’s report from the Florida frontier, including a description of what became the famed Negro Fort.
Fort Mitchell, AL, 8 January 1815
Manuscript report in an unidentified hand, 10 x 8 inches, docketing on verso; toned, partial separations at folds with slight loss at intersections, apparently lacking an integral blank.
In the late 18th century, a British trading company established a trading post in a remote location in Spanish-held western Florida, which attracted a small community of refugees from slavery, as well as Seminoles and Choctaws. During the War of 1812, the British army took control of the post from trader John Forbes in 1814, hoping to use it as a base for an attack on the American South. They formed many of the refugees into a Corps of Colonial Marines. A British fort offering a destination for escaped slaves, and arming them–this made Southern planters rather nervous.
Offered here is a written summary of a verbal report by a member of the Apalachicola tribe named Micco, who was sent by Americans as a “confidential man” to spy on British activities along the Apalachicola River in Florida. He began his journey by land along the west bank of the Chattahoochee River in what is now Alabama. Moving into ostensibly neutral Spanish-held Florida, about two miles below the confluence with the Flint River where it becomes the Apalachicola River, he discovered a small outpost: “20 white and 40 black soldiers . . . at the little old field where the commissioners of limits encamped. One officer commanded in British uniform. The Blacks were in blue. They had no fort or ditch. The Oheteyoconulges built them one house, and were to build another.”
Mecco continued down the west bank, crossing about 25 miles below the fork at the property of Jack Mealey’s and then another 50 miles along the east bank to the former Forbes & Company flour mill or trading post, which the British were developing into Fort Gadsden. There he saw “about 30 white soldiers at Forbes’s stores and 60 black soldiers . . . they have four cannon and mortars about 7 inch, two feet long, fixed on carriage with two low wheels, the store surrounded with a ditch. About 200 hostile Indians. He saw a number of black women and children at the stores, the men were all soldiers.” At the store he learned that “the Miccosookee people brought 3 skalps the day before he got to the store. Tuckwikee commanded the party and got the scalps near St. Illos. They were men’s scalps and killed on horse back. He saw a large supply of goods, arms and ammunition of good quality for the Indians.”
At the end of the War of 1812, soon after this report, the British abandoned the fort. However, as a sort of parting gift to the Americans, they left behind a large store of arms and ammunition, and encouraged the all-Black Corps of Colonial Marines to remain and defend the site. It then became more widely known as Negro Fort, and its existence helped spark the Seminole War to subdue Florida. In the 1816 Battle of Negro Fort, General Andrew Jackson managed to destroy the fort by lobbing a heated cannon ball into the powder magazine, killing hundreds.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
(civil war.)
Portrait of Nick Biddle, said to be the first man wounded in the Civil War.
Pottsville, PA, [1863]
Albumen photograph, 3½ x 2 inches, on original photographer’s mount with caption “Nick Biddle of Pottsville, Pa., the first man wounded in the Great American Rebellion, Baltimore, April 18, 1861”; corners and top edge cropped with minimal loss to photograph.
Nick Biddle (1796-1876) was born into slavery in Delaware, and after obtaining his freedom lived for many years in Pottsville, PA. There he became an unofficial member of the local militia company, as the personal servant of Captain James Wren (1825-1901). After the fall of Fort Sumter, the Pottsville men were one of one of 5 Pennsylvania militia companies summoned to provide emergency protection to the nation’s capital, including the 65-year-old Biddle. Although not allowed to formally join the army because of his race, Biddle wore the company’s uniform.
Passing through Baltimore on the way to Washington on 18 April, the 475 “First Defenders” were met by an angry mob of secessionists. Biddle, as a Black man in uniform, was the particular target of hostilities. A brick hit him in the head, sharply enough to expose the bone. The Baltimore police were barely able to protect the soldiers from the insurrectionists and get them on the train. In Washington, they were personally greeted by President Lincoln, who noticed Biddle’s blood-soaked head bandage and encouraged him to get medical attention. Biddle instead stayed with his unit.
With the war underway, Biddle soon returned to Pottsville to recuperate, ineligible to serve formally in the Army because of both his age and race. This portrait was taken in November 1863 by Pottsville photographer W.R. Mortimer to raise funds for Biddle’s support. The Lancaster Express on 23 November 1863 announced that a copy was sent to President Lincoln.
Biddle’s claim to be the first man wounded in the war is dependent on whether you include the evacuation of Fort Sumter the previous week, when six men were badly wounded by a powder explosion during a final salute to the American flag–technically friendly fire. Several other Pennsylvania “First Defenders” were wounded alongside Biddle on 18 April, but he is generally given precedence as the first. The more famous death of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth in Alexandria, VA was more than a month later. Biddle was almost certainly the first Black man in uniform with the Union Army during the Civil War.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
(civil war.)
Badge of the First Defenders Association featuring Nick Biddle, “First Man to Shed Blood in the Rebellion.”
Pottsville, PA, 18 April 1905
Pinback button, 1¾ inches across, featuring caption “First Man to Shed Blood in the Great Rebellion 1861-65, Nicholas Biddle” with his portrait, with union label on verso stating that it was manufactured by Whitehead & Hoag of Newark, NJ under an 1896 patent; and attached red, white, and blue ribbon, 3 x 1½ inches, reading “Reunion of First Defenders Association”; minor wear and fading to pinback, moderate wear and soiling to ribbon including ½-inch hole not affecting text.
Nick Biddle (1796-1876) was a formerly enslaved man of Pottsville, PA who was an unofficial member of the town’s militia company. They were one of five companies summoned as the “First Defenders” of Washington after the fall of Fort Sumter. In Baltimore, they were met by secessionist rioters who singled out Biddle for his race and wounded him badly with a brick. He is often regarded as the first man wounded in combat for the Union. He was also almost certainly the first Black man in uniform with the Union Army during the Civil War. Here, decades after the war, the all-white First Defenders Association chose to honor Biddle for his important role. No other examples traced.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(civil war.)
Report of the Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Colored People Suffering from the Late Riots
New York, 1863
in the City of New York. 48 pages. 8vo, early limp calf, minor wear, front wrap sunned, with original printed wrappers bound in; light vertical fold throughout; signed by committee chairman John D. McKenzie.
First edition of one of the best contemporary sources on New York’s horrifying Draft Riots of July 1863, in which about a hundred Black New Yorkers were killed and about two thousand injured, with enormous destruction of property. The secretary’s report by Vincent Colyer, pages 7-29, includes dozens of case histories and eyewitnesses. Page 30 describes a visit to the Weeksville neighborhood of Brooklyn, where many refugees had fled. The report concludes with lists of donors of cash and clothing to aid the victims. Afro-Americana 7082; Nevins, Civil War, page I:212; Sabin 54633; Work, page 561.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
(civil war.)
Issue of the Liberator featuring the departure of the 54th Massachusetts for the front.
Boston, 5 June 1863
4 pages, 25 x 18 inches, on one folding sheet; moderate wear including slight loss at intersection of folds; uncut.
An issue of William Lloyd Garrison’s famous abolitionist weekly with a 12-inch article on the legendary “Glory” regiment, which “took its departure for the field of active service” as “the pioneer colored regiment raised in the Northern States.” The reporter expresses “no fear, on the part of their friends, that they will disgrace the cause for which they fight.” The final review by Governor Andrew is described, as well as the route of their march to the wharf with a cheering crowd and the accompaniment of Gilmore’s Band “to the tune of John Brown.” At the wharf, “Frederick Douglass passed round among the different companies, bidding the soldiers farewell, and giving them words of encouragement” (two of his sons served in the regiment). The regiment’s officers including the doomed Colonel Robert G. Shaw are listed, and “in Essex Street, a lady presented Col. Shaw with a handsome bouquet.”
Among the other articles in this issue are a speech by Wendell Phillips, a report on the New England Anti-Slavery Convention, an article on the recruitment of the 55th Massachusetts regiment, and the publication of a new map of Charleston Harbor, where the 54th was heading for their meeting with history at Fort Wagner.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(civil war.)
Storming Fort Wagner.
Chicago: Kurz & Allison, 1890
Chromolithograph, 22 x 28 inches; moderate dampstaining along left edge, ½-inch chip on right edge, 2 short closed tears with tape repairs.
The Second Battle of Fort Wagner on 18 July 1863 was the first appearance of Black troops in a major Civil War battle. Union troops charged a heavily defended Confederate battery guarding the harbor at Charlestown, SC. The 54th Massachusetts Infantry suffered heavy losses in the heroic but doomed attack. The battle was depicted in the popular 1989 film Glory. This stirring print shows the 54th surging over the Confederate fortifications, engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the defenders. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw stands on the wall by his flag-bearer, clutching his chest, having apparently suffered his fatal wound. “No one else in the late nineteenth century produced such heroic depictions of black soldiers”–Neely & Holzer, Union Image, page 218 and plate 21.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(civil war.) a. hoen & co., lithographers.
Soldier’s Memorial: 4th Regiment, Company F, U.S. Col. Troops.
Baltimore, MD: Joseph L. Kessler, 1863
Chromolithograph, 19½ x 15½ inches; toning, moderate dampstaining, edge wear not affecting image.
This broadside was created when the 4th United States Colored Infantry was mustered in August 1863. The lithographed patriotic illustrations were part of a standard form, and then customized with a complete list of the company’s officers and soldiers. The regiment went on to fight at Petersburg, Fair Oaks, and Fort Fisher.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(civil war.)
Carte-de-visite of Charles Remond Douglass in uniform.
Boston: Case & Getchell, Photographic Artists, 3 May 1864
Albumen photograph, 3¼ x 2 inches, on original photographer’s mount, inscribed on verso “Charles R. Douglass 1st Serg’t Co. I, 5th Mass Cav., May 3, 1864”; light crease in lower margin, other minor wear.
Charles Remond Douglass (1844-1920) was the youngest son of Frederick Douglass. He enlisted with the famed 54th Massachusetts Regiment, but was unable to deploy due to illness. He then joined the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry and reached the rank of sergeant before his discharge. He went on to a long career of government service in the freedman’s and pension bureaus, also serving in the District of Columbia National Guard. This haunting image, taken shortly before his regiment departed for the front, was chosen for the cover of the 2018 regimental history, “The Fifth Massachusetts Colored Cavalry in the Civil War.”
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
(civil war.)
Carte-de-visite of an unidentified infantry soldier photographed in Pennsylvania.
Lancaster, PA: Gill’s City Gallery, circa 1863-65
Albumen photograph, 3¾ x 2¼ inches, with photographer’s backmark; minimal wear.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(civil war.)
Carte-de-visite portrait of “Benjamin Sears servant in the army.”
Oneida, NY, circa 1865
Albumen photograph, 3½ x 2 inches, on original mount with photographer’s backmark; pencil caption in image, moderate foxing.
This card came from an album relating to the 117th New York Infantry, a white regiment. Benjamin F. Sears (1847-1882) enlisted as a private in the 117th on 6 March 1865, a month before the end of the fighting. The regiment spent those final weeks advancing on Goldsboro, NC and occupying Raleigh, then remained on duty in North Carolina until their discharge in June. If we read this caption as lacking an apostrophe, it seems likely that the young man in this photograph was “Benjamin Sears’ servant in the army,” a North Carolina refugee from slavery who was hired by Private Sears, and then came north with him after the war. This portrait was taken by O.A. Hollenbeck of Oneida, NY.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(civil war.)
Papers manumitting an enslaved Maryland man into the Union Army.
Baltimore, MD, 1846 and 1864
5 manuscript and partly printed documents; some separations at folds and other wear.
As shown in these documents, William Howard (circa 1835-1864) was an enslaved laborer owned by the recently widowed Priscilla Ann (Jessup) Daugherty (1825-1906) of Baltimore. She manumitted him on 1 April 1864 directly into the service of the 30th United States Colored Infantry, Company I. The Emancipation Proclamation did not cover the enslaved of the northern states, although Maryland slaveowners like Daugherty could probably see the writing on the wall for the institution’s future prospects. She apparently received compensation for Howard’s enlistment, which is more than she would have received under emancipation. This lot includes:
“Volunteer Descriptive List” form documenting Howard’s enlistment, dated 25 March 1864, including Daugherty’s signed statement that “the above slave is her property for life.”
“Evidence of Title” form testifying that Daugherty acquired Howard as her “slave for life” by inheritance in 1858, with supporting statements by two witnesses, 4 pages including docket.
3 conjoined forms signed by Dougherty: a “Claimant’s Certificate” claiming her right to compensation for Howard’s enlistment; her “Oath of Allegiance” to the United States signed by Daugherty, to demonstrate her eligibility to receive compensation; and her pledge to file a Deed of Manumission, all dated 1 April 1864, 3 pages on one folding sheet.
“Deed of Manumission and Release of Service” (true copy of original deed), 14 x 8½ inches, full separations at folds. 4 April 1864.
Also a related deed of “one negro boy Charles Howard” (William’s brother?) from Priscilla Jessop to Priscilla A. Jessop of Baltimore, 1846.
After his manumission, or more accurately his sale into military service, William Howard enjoyed almost 8 months of freedom in 1864, all of it spent in the Army. Records show that on 24 November, while his regiment served in the Siege of Petersburg, he died in his tent–perhaps by an artillery shell.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(civil war.)
Correspondence of an officer of the 14th R.I. Heavy Artillery Regiment (Colored).
Louisiana, January to June 1864 (letters)
17 Autograph Letters Signed to sister Julia Ann Barney (1846-1912) of Leonard’s Corner [East Providence], RI, and 2 pieces of ephemera sleeved in one binder; minor wear; all but one of the letters with original stamped envelopes bearing New Orleans postmark.
These letters were written by an officer in the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, later known as the 11th United States Colored Heavy Artillery, which spent the war in Louisiana. Caleb Henry Barney (1844-1904) of East Providence, RI served as a first lieutenant and adjutant with the regiment’s second battalion from December 1863 to October 1865, which was mainly stationed at Plaquemine on the Mississippi northwest of New Orleans, just south of Baton Rouge. His letters include interesting commentary on the regiment’s Black troops, and on the newly freed men and women of Louisiana.
On arriving in Louisiana on 21 February 1864, he boasts that “we can’t be beat much, by any body of troops with the same experience. Our dress parades, particularly, are very fine.” By 31 March, he notes that “The people of this place are altering their opinion of colored soldiers very much since they have had an opportunity to see that they know how to behave themselves as well as white men.” The battalion saw the passenger steamer J.H. Russell burning on the river, and made themselves useful in the community: “We turned out a large detail immediately and they went to work saving the cattle, hogs, and mules which were aboard.” On 25 April, waiting for a rebel attack, he hopes “we shall have a little brush, just to show the people of this secesh town that ‘niggers’ will fight.” He also comments on the scandalous mistreatment of his troops, who were (like all of the Colored Troops) receiving unequal pay: “The paymaster was here last week to pay the men, but they declined, preferring to wait until Congress shall pass the bill making their pay the same as that of white troops. This is what they were promised when they enlisted.”
On the local freedmen, he notes on 21 February that “slavery is dead anyhow, and a system of compensated labor is being established, the planters being required to pay so much per month to every hand employed by them, & the negroes are allowed to choose their own masters.” An important order by the military government was noted on 4 June: “There is an order from Gen. Banks that all negroes who have been living together as man and wife, but who were only married by jumping over the broomstick, etc., must now be legally married by the provost marshals of the several parishes, and are to have a certificate of their marriage, same as white folks. There will consequently be a large number of marriage ceremonies during the ensuing summer.” The letters end in June 1864, although Barney remained with the regiment until they were mustered out in October 1865. A more detailed summary of his letters is available upon request.
Included with the letters are two other items. One is a manuscript mock newspaper titled “Roanoke Press,” written by Barney for his family on 22 February 1862 while he was with the 5th Rhode Island Infantry. He describes a scouting party which discovered a “negro woman with a huge whiskey bottle in her hand” who fled from them “as fast as her legs could carry her.” Also included is a 27 September 1864 broadside playbill for “Grand Vocal and Instrumental Concert on Board the U.S.S. Argosy,” a patrol boat which was based on the Mississippi south of Plaquemines. It was apparently a minstrel show given by 9 performers including “Master Lon, the Young American Excelsior Jig Dancer.”
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
(civil war.)
Group of letters by a father and son supervising Black engineering regiments near Cincinnati.
Various places, 1862-64
3 Autograph Letters Signed to Ellen Gamble Paul, each 4 pages, 9¾ x 7½ inches; moderate wear.
“They are by far the best workmen.”
While fighting regiments like the 54th Massachusetts got all the glory, most regiments of Colored Troops worked on essential but thoroughly unglamorous engineering projects. These 3 letters offer a bit of insight into life in these regiments. Robert Spencer Paul writes from Cincinnati on 14 September 1862 about his brother Harrison Daniel Paul (1835-1906), a white civilian engineer supervising the construction of forts near Cincinnati: “Harry has the Black brigade under him now. Tom Peters has one half and Harry the other, giving each 600 Negroes. They are by far the best workmen. Harry and Tom Peters’ works are by far the best constructed of any along the whole line. . . . Harry has had 2 forts to construct, while none of the others have more than one. Harry eats with the Black brigade, and the cooks of the Negro co that he messes with were getting $100 a month a piece as cooks before they went to the fortifications. They do get things up in good style. The white cooks in the camp around are too dirty to eat after. In Harry’s division there are 300 to 500 Negroes chopping all the time, and they will chop more than 3 city white men. They are a good-natured jolly set, more than half mulattoes, pretty smart fellows.”
Also included are two letters from their father Hosea Paul (1809-1870), a surveyor who supervised military road-building projects. On 2 January 1864 he wrote from Big Hill in Madison County in central Kentucky: “I suppose we shall have something over 100 impressed Negroes the first of next week.” On 29 January he was 10 miles further south in Rockcastle County: “When I came here the military supt . . . promised the Negroes of Fayette, Montgomery, Madison & Nicholas Counties, probably 150 from each co., instead of which only 70 have come from Madison & none from any other county. The overseers . . . are undoubtedly selected because they are the most ignorant men on the subject of road making in the county. . . . I start in the morning & ride 1½ miles to the first gang & then 2½ miles further to the 2nd, where I get my dinner & return in season for supper.”
Estimate
$400 – $600
(civil war.)
Group of letters by a white Connecticut soldier hoping to bring his contraband servant back north with him.
Various places, 1863-65
4 Autograph Letters Signed by Lieutenant Theodore Vaill to various family members. 9 pages in total, various sizes; folds and minimal wear. One letter with original stamped envelope bearing Alexandria postmark.
The author of these letters, Theodore Frelinghuysen Vaill (1832-1875), was a white lieutenant in the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery from an affluent family. He served in various Virginia campaigns through the course of the war. He came into frequent contact with refugee “contrabands” who had escaped from slavery, and like many officers, hired one as his personal servant. These four letters all discuss his efforts to bring some of these refugees back north to Litchfield, CT, where they could find employment at his family’s estate or with trusted neighbors.
The earliest letter offered here is dated 23 October 1863, where he writes: “Willie is doing very well. If you wanted a colored boy to raise, I could send you one, who would be worth 40 Irvings.” The other three letters are from after the conclusion of fighting, while Vaill awaited discharge at Fort Ethan Allen near Arlington, VA. In 28 June 1865 letter to his brother Joe, he adds in a postscript “Has my colored boy arrived?” He wrote at greater length to his brother Charles on 8 July 1865: “To the folks at Litchfield, I have a first rate colored boy named Leander. He has been with me ever since I returned to the reg’t & I know him to be a good boy, faithful & likely, about 16 or 17 yrs old. He wants me to take him home. Shall I do so, for you or some neighbor? Please write and let me know.” Finally, on 27 July 1865, he wrote to his father: “I cannot send a boy to Mr. Dudley. . . . I don’t want to promise to let him have my boy Leander, because I think he will be very valuable to keep at the manse. He is the embodiment of faithfulness, and he and Jack will be none too much help. Leander can wash & do any kind of indoor work, such as generally allotted to the women folks in New England, and which breaks them down & kills them. He can make his own bed, do his own (& other peoples’) washing, &c &c. . . . I shan’t look up any colored folks for Lewis Kilbourn & Amos Bissell unless they write me & let me know what they want.” We do not know if Leander ever made it to Connecticut, but we can find no record of him in Connecticut in the 1870 census.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(civil war.) george m. dennett.
History of the Ninth U.S.C. Troops.
Philadelphia, 1866
Frontispiece portrait of Abraham Lincoln. [7]-148 pages. 12mo, publisher’s gilt pictorial cloth, wear and dampstaining to the top inch; a few early inked memoranda, faint dampstaining, lacking front free endpaper and rear flyleaf; bookplate, inked stamps, circulation card, and cancel stamp of Lehigh University.
The roster and concise history of the 9th United States Colored Infantry Regiment, written by its Lieutenant Colonel and sometime commander shortly after they were mustered out. Although its publication date is given as 1866, it includes material through 30 December 1866. The regiment’s lieutenant colonel Samuel C. Armstrong went on to launch what became the Hampton Institute. The regiment was at the Siege of Petersburg, the Battle of Fair Oaks, and the occupation of Richmond, then were stationed in Texas for a year after the war. This volume names all of the regiment’s enlisted men, their date and place of enlistment, and usually their date and place of death or discharge. Only one other traced at auction, in a Swann sale, 30 March 2017, lot 401.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
(civil war.)
“Joshua Baker, Ex-Slave and Union Army Veteran.”
Hancock, MD, July 1898
Albumen print, 3¾ x 3¾ inches, on original plain mount with photographer’s inscription on verso; moderate wear to mount with tack holes in margin; image scratched and faded.
Joshua W. Baker (1837-1909) was a lifelong resident of Maryland. Born into slavery, he served in the 39th United States Colored Troops, which participated in the Siege of Petersburg, the capture of Fort Fisher, and more. After the war, he raised a family of 4 as a laborer in Flintstone and Hancock, MD. This photograph was taken by Urner Garfield Carl (1880-1962) in Hancock, probably at a 4th of July celebration.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(military.) henry ossian flipper.
The Colored Cadet at West Point.
New York: Homer Lee, 1878
2 portrait plates. [2], 322 pages. 12mo, publisher’s gilt pictorial cloth, worn, backstrip chipped; dampstaining to plates only, frontispiece and preliminary leaves worn and detached or nearly so, minor wear to remainder of contents; extensive ownership inscriptions on front pastedown, preface page and elsewhere.
First edition of the autobiography of the first Black cadet to graduate from West Point. Afro-Americana 3714; Blockson 7868.
This copy is not in bibliophilic condition. It was owned from at least 1930 to 1974 by a Black man named Robert Young, who wrote six of his addresses in the book, adding “Please don’t forget to return this book” and “Please return this book, thanx.” He can be traced through draft registration records, the 1940 census for Los Angeles, and the city directories for Santa Barbara, California at these addresses from 1949 to 1978. His full name was Robert Bruce Young (1894-circa 1980), and he worked as a chauffeur, shipping clerk, porter, and custodian. We can safely infer that this rare book was one of his most treasured possessions, but that he occasionally shared Lieutenant Flipper’s remarkable story with trusted friends.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(world war one.)
Photograph of nine decorated soldiers from the famed Harlem Hellfighters.
No place, [12 February 1919]
Silver print, 8 x 10 inches, with inked Underwood & Underwood credit stamp on verso; worn with a 1¼-inch closed tear and several smaller tears and chips, and a 4-inch fold near the left edge.
The 369th Infantry Regiment was formed as the 15th New York National Guard Regiment, but was widely known as the Harlem Hellfighters. The all-Black troops spent more time in the front-line trenches than any other American unit, suffered the greatest losses (1,500 men), and were the first to cross the Rhine into Germany. 170 of their men were awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French government in December 1918. Nine of them are shown here aboard the steamer Stockholm en route back to New York at the close of the war (as captioned at the National Archives). Front row: Ed Williams, Herbert Taylor, Leon Fraitor, Ralph Hawkins. Back row: Sergeants H. D. Prinas and Dan Storms; Joe Williams; Alfred Hanley; and Corporal T. W. Taylor.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(world war one.)
Panorama photo of the 426th Reserve Labor Battalion.
Camp Sevier, SC, 18 January 1919
Photograph, 8 x 38½ inches, captioned with credit of post photographer J.R. Peden, with additional photographer’s inked stamp on verso; worn with two complete vertical tears but stabilized by original linen backing.
Camp Sevier near Greenville, SC was created in 1917 to train National Guard troops for deployment to the European front in the first World War. This unit was composed, as typical, of Black enlisted men with white officers including commander James S. Driver in the foreground. Two motorcycles with sidecars can be seen in foreground, and what appears to be a boxing ring is set up just behind the troops. According to the Greenville News of 28 January 1919, the company started demobilization within ten days of this photograph. Provenance: Carol Yvonne Perdue Black Memorabilia Collection.
Estimate
$200 – $300
(world war one.)
“Our Colored Heroes” medallion.
No place, circa 1918
Metal, 1¼ inches round, with tiny mounting loop at top; minor wear; without the flag ribbon pin sometimes found attached through the loop.
A scarce unofficial medallion produced for sale to returning black troopers and their proud family members. On the obverse, a soldier marches in front of a sunset with a ribbon title reading “Our Colored Heroes.” On verso is the caption over crossed flags: “World War Began August 1, 1914, US Entered April 6, 1917, War Ended Nov. 11, 1918.”
Estimate
$200 – $300
(world war two.)
Findings and Principal Addresses . . . on the Participation of the Negro in National Defense.
Hampton, VA: Hampton Institute Conference, 1940
[5], 61 mimeographed leaves. 4to, 11 x 8¼ inches, original color wrappers, staple-bound; minimal wear.
This wide-ranging report from the eve of American entrance into the war addresses segregation in the military and in the defense industries, as might be expected–but also covers religion, public health, education, “morale and mental hygiene,” and much more. It features a facsimile introductory letter from President Roosevelt, expressing warm support for the patriotic goals of the conference. None traced at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(world war two.)
“Above and Beyond the Call of Duty”: Dorie Miller Received the Navy Cross at Pearl Harbor.
Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943
Poster, 28 x 20 inches; minor wear, tastefully restored at folds, laid down on linen.
In the segregated navy of the 1940s, Blacks were almost entirely restricted to service as mess attendants. When Pearl Harbor was attacked on 7 December 1941, one of the messmen on the USS West Virginia was Doris “Dorie” Miller. While the ship was under fire from the surprise attack, Miller carried a wounded officer from the deck, and then without any training took a position behind one of the ship’s anti-aircraft guns. As he described it later, “It wasn’t hard. I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about fifteen minutes. I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us.”
Once his identity became known, Miller received a Distinguished Service Cross, but after lobbying by the nation’s Black press, he was awarded the yet more prestigious Navy Cross in May 1942. He died in the line of duty in November 1943.
The artist was David Stone Martin, who was otherwise best known for the art on hundreds of jazz record covers in the 1940s and 1950s. Only 2 other examples are traced in OCLC.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
(world war two.)
Keep Us Flying! Buy War Bonds.
Poster, 28 x 20 inches; original fold, minimal wear including two ½-inch tears.
The first poster to recognize the Tuskegee Airmen. Design for Victory, page 36; War Posters 263.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
(world war two.)
He Needs the Best Equipment. Buy More Extra Bonds.
No place, circa April 1945
Poster, 44 x 30 inches; moderate wear to upper right corner, tastefully restored; backed by linen.
A patriotic call to support the war effort, featuring simple but powerful artwork of a Black soldier taking aim with his rifle. This poster is undated, but the Seventh War Loan Drive was not launched until April 1945. No other examples traced in OCLC or at auction.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
(world war two.)
United We Win.
Washington: War Manpower Commission, 1943
Poster, 28 x 22 inches; folds, ½-inch closed tear, minor wear.
This poster promoted the message that racism was unpatriotic and hindered the war effort. It features a photograph of black and white riveters by Alexander Liberman of the Office of War Information.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(world war two.)
Build for the Future . . . Buy U.S. Savings Bonds.
Poster, 26 x 18½ inches; horizontal folds, minimal wear.
Features a portrait of George Washington Carver and his quote, “Without vision, there is no hope. Protect your country . . . and your future.” The artist was William Kautz.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(world war two.)
3 publicity photographs of women doing war-related factory work.
Kansas, [1943]
Each 10 x 8 inches; minor wear; variously captioned, each with an inked stamp on verso from the Women’s Bureau of the United States Department of Labor.
Here we meet the real-life versions of “Rosie the Riveter.” Two of these photographs were taken at the North American Aviation plant in Kansas City, KS. One has an attached caption reading “Eula D. Smith and Alice L. Jones are shown doing precision finishing work with air screw hammers on a sub-assembly of a B-25” and the other reads on verso “Former school teacher Martha Lolles, left & Iris A. Mahone install a de-icer boot on the wing of a B-25.” Both of these photographs were published in a spread on war work in the Pittsburgh Courier, 30 January 1943. The third photograph is captioned more simply “Negro women welders at work in the shipfitter shop.” It was later published in the April 1945 pamphlet “Negro Women War Workers”–a copy of the page is included, credited to the United States Navy.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(world war two.)
Issue of “The Buffalo,” camp newspaper of the segregated 92nd Infantry Division.
Fort Huachuca, AZ, 2 September 1944
Volume 5, Number 1. 8 pages, 14 x 10 inches, on 2 folding sheets; ¼ x 2-inch hole through all 4 leaves, other minor wear.
The 92nd Infantry Division was formed in 1917, and reactivated as a “colored” unit in 1942. Part of the division, a combat team from the 370th Infantry Regiment, went overseas to fight in Italy in July 1944. The rest of the division followed them to Italy on 22 September, just 3 weeks after this newspaper was published. They were the only Black infantry division to see combat in the European theater.
This newspaper issue reports proudly on the combat team’s first engagement, with a headline reading “C.T. Battles Nazis at Arno,” and a page 2 editorial: “Since the announcement from Italy and General Clark’s speech accepting the 92d Combat Team as a battle unit, all of us have been busting brass buttons with pride.” Also included are a story on the newspaper’s new printing press, and a slang-filled report on “that mad series of parties the hipsters have been giving” by a reporter dubbed The Sniper. No other issues of The Buffalo have been traced in OCLC or at auction. The Fort Huachuca Museum holds 52 issues, but not this one.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(korean war.)
Kansas City family album showing a son’s naval service.
Various places, 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
$400 – $600
Photography
(photography.)
Ambrotype photograph of Pennsylvania domestic servant Kittie Holmes.
Pennsylvania, circa late 1850s
9th-plate ambrotype, 2½ x 2 inches, in period case with moderate wear; light discoloration to edges of image; circa early 20th-century tag on verso of glass reading “Kittie Holmes, lived 13 years with Job & Mary Evans Windle” and additional illegible pencil note on interior of case.
The caption tag is corroborated by the 1850 census for Upper Leacock, PA, which shows moderately prosperous farmer Job Windle (1807-1890) aged 43 and worth $9,832, his wife Mary E. Windle aged 36, their 5 children, and Black servant Catherine Homes aged 29, born in Virginia. By 1860, the family had moved to Westtown, PA and appeared in the census without Holmes. We can find no other record of her.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(photography.)
Photograph of the Yale “college sweeps” (custodial staff).
[New Haven, CT, 1872]
Albumen photograph, 5½ x 4 inches, captioned in pencil in lower margin; minor foxing and wear, unrelated photograph mounted on verso.
The “Yale Sweeps” were Yale University’s all-Black custodial force in the 19th century, with a place in college lore, and often occupying a substantial position in the local community due to their connection with the school. Of the men shown here, Carter Wright was the son of an A.M.E. minister who had served as a chaplain in the Civil War. George T. Livingston had served in the 29th Connecticut Infantry during the war, was active in Republican politics, and served as a deacon of his church. See Charles E. Warner, Jr.’s article on the Sweeps in the Yale & Slavery Research Project.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(photography.)
Cabinet card of a Virginia servant and her young charge.
Richmond, VA: Foster, circa 1895
Photograph, 5½ x 3¾ inches, on photographer’s mount, signed in lower margin “For Elizabeth, with Searing’s & Mammy’s love, Merry X-Mas!,” and captioned on verso in a later hand “Patsy Hall ‘Mom Patsy’ with Sharon Dashiell, Richmond”; worn with slight loss at top edge.
This family can be easily identified through the 1897 Richmond directory (1009 East Clay Street) and 1900 census for Richmond (405 East Grace Street). The uniformed servant is Patsey Hall, born in Virginia circa 1835. The boy is Searing Taylor Dashiell (1890-1942). They lived in the home of Searing’s grandmother Mary Taylor May (1840-1910), along with Searing’s parents and uncles and three other servants.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(photography.) essie collins matthews.
Aunt Phebe, Uncle Tom and Others.
Columbus, OH, 1915
Dozens of photographic illustrations. in the text. 140 pages. 8vo, publisher’s gilt cloth, minor wear, light spotting; minimal dampstaining, clipping of book review on flyleaf; inscribed on front free endpaper “Marian Remington, 1915, presented by the author.”
A collection of short biographies of formerly enslaved people, compiled by a white woman from Columbus, OH with strong Southern sympathies. The book is “illustrated from photographs made by the author in the cabins and on the plantations.” The foreword summarizes her editorial viewpoint: “Thousands of negroes, though slaves no longer, lingered with their former masters, working for them and sharing their misfortunes. The freedom the war had brought to them was not of their seeking. . . . They chose to stay with those whom they had come to know as friends and protectors. They stayed and served with fidelity . . . and in turn were treated with the kindness, affection and justice that are characteristic of the Southern people.” Although the book is essentially Confederate Lost Cause propaganda, and the narrative is heavily skewed toward nostalgia, the portraits and biographies may still have some historical value. None at auction since 2005.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(photography.) carl van vechten.
Portrait of Etta Moten Barnett.
No place, 16 March 1934
Silver print, 9¾ x 7 inches, with the photographer’s inked stamp on verso bearing a manuscript date and catalog number.
This portrait was taken just six weeks after her breakthrough performance for President Roosevelt at the White House, and three months before her marriage to influential newspaper man Claude Barnett.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(photography.) james van der zee, photographer.
Portrait of Etta Moten Barnett.
No place, 1982
Photograph, 14 x 11 inches, signed and dated in the negative, also signed in pencil on verso, with pencil copyright notice in a different hand; minimal wear, lightly curled.
A very late work by the famed photographer James Van Der Zee (1886-1983), who was about 96 years old when he signed this portrait in a shaky hand. The sitter Etta Moten Barnett (1901-2004) had been a star actress and singer of the 1930s and 1940s and starred in a very successful run of “Porgy and Bess” in 1942, then went on to become an important civic leader in Chicago.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Politics
(politics.)
Standard Bearer of National Liberty Party for President, U.S.A., 1904: Very Truly, Geo. E. Taylor.
No place, 1904
Illustrated placard, 11 x 8¼ inches, on card stock, with printed signature; small abrasions in image, surface adhesion loss in margins, minor dampstaining.
George Edwin Taylor (1857-1925) was the son of an enslaved man and a free Black woman in Arkansas. He made his way to Wisconsin as an orphan in 1865, where he became a labor activist and newspaper publisher. He moved to Iowa in 1891. In 1904 he was chosen to head the presidential ticket of the newly formed National Liberty Party, against incumbent Republican Theodore Roosevelt. As described on this card: “Notice: The only Negro who ever made the race for President.” His write-in campaign gathered a few thousand votes. He spent the last years of his life in Florida.
Taylor was the subject of a 2011 book by Bruce Mouser, “For Labor, Race, and Liberty: George Edwin Taylor, his Historic Run for the White House, and the Making of Independent Black Politics.” We trace only one other example of this placard, at the University of North Florida.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
(politics.)
Coming! Congressman Oscar DePriest, the Only Negro in the U.S. Congress.
Charleston, SC, 1931
Letterpress handbill, 9 x 5¾ inches; dampstaining, chips in upper margin, vertical fold.
Oscar Stanton De Priest (1871-1951) of Chicago was the first Black Congressman elected in the 20th century, serving three terms from 1929 to 1935. This handbill is for a lecture he gave at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina: “Congressman DePriest is the most outstanding Negro in American public life today. No Negro can afford to miss seeing and hearing this great man.”
Estimate
$300 – $400
(politics.)
Papers of Nebraska legislator John Adams Jr.
Nebraska, 1918-1940 and undated
15 items, mostly photographs, various sizes up to 20 x 16 inches; some wear, ranging from substantial to minimal.
John Adams Jr. (1906-1999) was a University of Nebraska graduate and practiced law in Omaha. He served in the Nebraska Legislature as a Republican from 1935 to 1941. He stood out in the legislature for more than just his race; he was at least two decades younger than most of the other legislators. He left to serve as a captain in World War Two; his father the Rev. John Adams Sr. eventually won his seat. After the war, Adams Jr. practiced law in the San Francisco area. Offered here are:
A large 1935 group portrait of the legislature at their desks, with Adams up front in the lower right corner. 16 x 20 inches; worn with heavy horizontal crease.
7 other smaller group portraits of the legislature and its committees, both posed and candid, all including Adams, with minimal wear.
A group portrait of the annual meeting of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, moderate wear including loss of a corner, 8 x 19¾ inches, Kansas City, MO, 1940.
His certificates to practice law in Nebraska, 20 x 16 and 11½ x 14 inches, mounted on board, 8 June 1929.
His certificate of election as a member of the Nebraska Legislature, 11 x 14 inches, 5 November 1940.
A worn newspaper clipping with caricatures of the Nebraska legislators including Adams, 7 May 1940.
A large photograph of a young girl, presumably his future wife Constance, 15 x 11¾ inches, 1918.
A group portrait of the wives of the legislators, apparently including a grown version of that same girl, 5 x 9½ inches, undated.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(politics.)
Group of campaign ephemera from the short-lived Freedom Now! Party.
No place, circa 1963-1964
4 items; condition strong.
This all-Black party with Communist ties was formed during the 1963 March on Washington. They ran 39 candidates for state and local office in the 1964 elections, but none were elected, and they disbanded soon afterward. We can trace no other material from the party at auction. Included are:
Handbill, 8½ x 5¼ inches, asking “Important! Why an All Black Freedom Now Party?”
Bumper sticker, 3½ x 15 inches, reading “Support Freedom Now! Party.”
Pinback button, just under one inch across, reading “Freedom Now! Party.”
Small pin, one inch high, depicting a clenched fist, reading “Freedom Now.”
Estimate
$600 – $900
(politics.)
They Stand Up For Freedom–Stand Up With Them. Vote for Reverend John R. Porter, Alderman.
Chicago, 28 February [1967]
6 illustrated pages, 11 x 8¾ inches, on one folding sheet, mailing folds, one donor name circled in ink, minor wear.
An elaborate brochure for the campaign of civil rights activist and minister John R. Porter (born 1932) to be a Chicago alderman. His biography and civil rights achievements are noted at length, including six days in a Georgia jailhouse with Martin Luther King. The front page shows him on stage with Dr. King.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(politics.)
Handbill for an Adam Clayton Powell event.
New York, 3 November 1968
Handbill, 8½ x 5½ inches; creases, small ink scribble.
A Harlem fundraiser event at the Renaissance Ballroom featuring the longtime congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., as well as soul music, a dance contest, and cash prizes, put on by the Alfred E. Isaac Club for Democrats.
Estimate
$200 – $300
(politics.)
Pair of satirical posters pairing George Wallace with Black leaders.
Various places, 1967 and 1971
2 items, as described.
Alfred Gescheidt. Poster, 28 x 22 inches; minor wear. Features an untitled photo-montage, elsewhere titled “Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows” or “American Gothic.” Depicts the heads of pioneering congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and notorious segregationist George Wallace grafted onto the famous Grant Wood painting. The poster is dated 1971, although you might expect it to date from the 1972 presidential campaign, when they both vied for the Democratic Party nomination; Chisholm famously visited Wallace in the hospital after an 8 June assassination attempt. New York: Yippy Inc., 1971.
“Wallace and Carmichael for President. Oi-Vay America. Vote the Black-White Power Party for More and Better Segregation.” Poster, 22½ x 17½ inches; moderate edge wear. Draws a dubious equivalence between Wallace’s segregationism and Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power activism. None traced at auction or in OCLC. No place: Poster Print, 1967.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(politics.)
Bring U.S. Together. Vote Chisholm 1972, Unbought and Unbossed.
New York: N.G. Slater, 1972
Poster, 14½ x 11½ inches, in red and black on card stock; moderate wear including staple holes at corners, 5-inch diagonal fold through caption, and other shorter folds.
Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress. This poster was created for her 1972 presidential campaign, in which she was the first Black candidate to seek a major party’s nomination–a story told in the recent miniseries Mrs. America.
WITH–a 3 x 5-inch index card with her signature “Shirley Chisholm.”
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
(politics.)
Signed photograph of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.
No place, circa 1972?
Photograph, 10 x 8 inches, without credit or stamp, signed in felt-tipped pen “Aim high! Congresswoman Chisholm”; minimal wear, very light smudge to signature.
The photograph is undated but likely comes from the period of her 1972 campaign for the Democratic nomination for the presidency.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(prisons.)
Photograph of convicts leased out to a road crew in Atlanta.
Atlanta, GA, circa 1909-1915
Photograph, 3¾ x 5¾ inches, with several stamps and notations on verso from the Gilliams Service and the receiving newspaper; cropped, minor wear.
At least 15 convicts, most of them Black, perform road work while a guard and several pedestrians look on. The captions on verso suggest that this photo was used as a generic illustration for a 1923 news story about a death in a prison camp, but it dates from several years earlier in Atlanta. The Dixie Garage, seen in the background at center, was at 12 E. Cain Street in Atlanta from about 1909 to 1915.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(prisons.)
United Prisoners Union: Power to the Convicted Class.
No place, circa 1975
Poster, 26 x 20 inches; minor wear including staple holes in corners and slight loss at upper left corner.
The radical United Prisoners Union was formed in California in late 1971, and was active at least through the June 1975 murder of its leader Wilbur “Popeye” Jackson. He may be depicted at the center of this poster, which is captioned “. . . but you can’t kill the revolution!”
Estimate
$400 – $600
(prisons.)
Attica . . . The Struggle Continues. Support the Black Liberation Struggle.
Color screen-print poster, 29 x 20¾ inches; ½-inch closed puncture on left edge, spot-mounted on top edge to heavy mat board.
Includes illustrations of Soledad Brother George Jackson and others, and a list of notable prison uprisings. In addition to the September 1971 Attica uprising which resulted in 43 deaths, the 1974 August Rebellion at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women is referenced. The list concludes with a reference to the July 1978 Pontiac prison uprising. One in OCLC, at Northwestern University, and none traced at auction.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(reconstruction.) truman f. maxim.
A Union soldier reports on the freedmen’s first Fourth of July celebration in Raleigh, NC.
Raleigh, NC, 3 and 5 July 1865
Autograph Letter Signed to “parents and friends.” 4 pages, 8 x 5 inches, on one folding sheet; mailing folds, minimal wear. With original envelope bearing New Bern postmark and inked “Due 3” stamp.
On the 4th of July, the Black community of Raleigh, NC celebrated their first Independence Day as freedmen (just weeks after the original Juneteenth in Texas). About 3,000 marched with banners. As the New York Times reported on 14 July 1865, “the disenthralled slaves enjoyed a celebration of this glorious day, following a programme of their own making, and listening to speakers of their own selection.” The Union soldiers who had remained to enforce the peace were asked to stay in camp, to avoid disturbing the celebration. The idea of free Blacks enjoying the holiday while he was stuck in camp was deeply offensive to this particular white Union soldier, who contemplated armed resistance:
“I will tell you about the 4 of July. It was salurbrated mostly by the Negrows. The streets were blacker than a thundercloud. They had such a time as you might supose that the Negrows get up, with the exceptions of a little fire works just to please the Negrows. . . . You will think I am coming down on the Negrows prety hard but I can’t help that. You know that I’m a one of these kind that speaks just what I think, and when a General will issue an order not to allow an inlisted man in town without a pass signed by a brigade commander, I think it is time to talk, and if that is not enough, it is time to shoot.”
Truman Francis Maxim (1845-1934) had enlisted in October 1864 as a hired substitute in the 9th Maine Infantry. His regiment mustered out and was sent home on 13 July 1865, just eight days after he wrote this remarkably entitled letter.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(reconstruction.) james c. beard; artist.
The Fifteenth Amendment, Celebrated May 19th 1870.
New York: Thomas Kelly, 1870
Hand-colored lithograph, 21¼ x 27 inches; 3 substantial closed tears in the lower margin, the longest 4½ inches and extending well into the image, ½-inch filled loss in image area near right edge, light soiling, laid down and stabilized on linen.
The central image depicts a Black zouave regiment on parade, celebrating the passage of the 15th Amendment. 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,” “Education will prove the equality of the races,” and “the ballot box is open to us.” Reilly, American Political Prints 1870-4.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Religion
(religion.)
Deed selling the property of the First African Baptist Church of Philadelphia to its creditor.
Philadelphia, 5 December 1822
Document Signed by Sheriff Caleb North (with remnant of his wax seal), two witnesses, and a clerk. One page, 20 x 30 inches, on vellum, with docketing on verso; folds, minimal foxing.
The First African Baptist Church of Philadelphia was founded in 1809, and was located at the corner of 13th and Vine from 1817 to 1822 before losing the property to a creditor–as described in this deed. The congregation remains active today.
This deed describes a “writ of fieri facias” which was issued by the sheriff of Philadelphia, Caleb North: “I was lately commanded that of the goods and chattels, lands and tenements of the First African Baptist Church of the City of Philadelphia . . . to be levied three hundred and fifty seven dollars . . . which to Richard Peters Junior . . . adjudges for his damages which he sustained as well by occasion of the non-performance of a certain promise and assumption by the said First African Baptist Church. . . . By virtue of the said writ I have seized and taken in execution all that certain lot or piece of ground with a one-story brick messuage thereon erected (occupied as a place of worship) situate on the west side of the Delaware, Thirteenth Street.” The creditor Richard Peters Jr. (1780-1848) then bought the property at a public auction for $350. This document thus officially deeds the land to Peters, who was a well-connected white Philadelphia attorney. His father had served in the Continental Congress, and he was appointed as solicitor of Philadelphia County in the same year as this deed. How exactly the church came to owe him that large sum of money, or what he did with the seized church property, we do not know.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(religion.)
Photograph of the first tabernacle of the Church of God and Saints of Christ.
Philadelphia, circa 1900
Silver print, 8 x 6 inches, with inked P-J Press Bureau stamp, later 1928 inked stamp, and manuscript notations on verso; minimal wear.
The Church of God and Saints of Christ was founded by William Saunders Crowdy in Philadelphia in 1899, and moved to Washington, DC in 1903. They were one of the first Black Israelite congregations in the country, professing a direct link to Judaism as well as a devotion to the teachings of Christ. The church remains active with 50 tabernacles today. This photograph depicts the first tabernacle in its very early days at 1416½ Quaker City Hall in Philadelphia. The sign depicts an all-seeing eye and the “Stone of Truth.”
Estimate
$500 – $750
(religion.) israel l. butt.
History of African Methodism in Virginia, or Four Decades in the Old Dominion.
Hampton, VA: Hampton Institute Press, 1908
4 plates. 252 pages. 8vo, publisher’s gilt calf, minor wear; endpapers renewed, pencil notes on a few pages, minimal wear.
Includes biographies of prominent ministers (including the author), summaries of annual meetings, and more. The important architect John Anderson Lankford is profiled with a portrait as an appendix. We trace no other copies at auction.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(religion.) william n. holt, editor.
Gems of the Kingdom: Family Edition, Revival and Jubilee Songs
Baltimore, MD: William N. Holt, circa 1913.
(wrapper title). 3 portraits of Holt, his wife, and young son. [2], 25 pages. Original printed wrappers, worn, crudely restitched; leaves brittle with moderate edge wear but no loss of text, one leaf detached, bound with what appear to be an index leaf and rear wrapper from an entirely different book.
This collection of 23 hymns includes standards like “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” others by contemporary authors, and a few credited to Holt as author, including “Meet Me at the Pearly Gates,” copyrighted in 1913. We can trace little information about Rev. Holt, but the Baltimore Sun of 27 January 1908 names him as minister of the Whatcoat Epworth Methodist Episcopal Church, and he preached at A.M.E. churches occasionally through at least 1929. His son William Tyler Holt was born in August 1908 per his 1940 draft registration, and appears to be about 5 years old in the photograph at the rear of this volume. We trace no other copies in OCLC or at auction.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(religion.) judge jackson.
The Colored Sacred Harp.
Ozark, AL: published by the author, [1934]
Double-sided frontispiece with portraits of the author and his associate author Bishop J.D. Walker. 96 pages. Oblong 8vo, original printed wrappers, light crease in one corner, otherwise minimal foxing and wear; minimal wear to contents.
First edition. Sacred harp singing is a genre of vocal music which features hymns sung in four-part harmony, written in shape notes. It originated in New England and was first popularized by the 1844 publication of The Sacred Harp; it soon migrated to the South. The music is not generally performed at concerts or church services, but at regular participatory “singings.” Judge Jackson (1883-1958) was raised in Alabama, where as his son recalled “the only sacred harp singers in Montgomery County were whites.” He moved as a young man to Ozark in southeastern Alabama, where he became a sacred harp singer and helped form the Dale County Colored Music Institute. He led the committee to write this new volume of sacred harp music. Each of the dozens of songs are attributed to an author with its composition date. Many are written by Judge Jackson, and he edited the remainder; most of the dates range from 1929 to 1932. The frontispiece urges: “We ask your co-operation both White and Colored to help us place this book in every home. That we may learn thousands of people especially the youth how to praise God in singing.” The songs had an extended life, with a revival sparked by the 1970 formation of the Wiregrass Sacred Harp Singers and the 1973 publication of a second edition (featuring a “History of the Colored Sacred Harp”). Further editions followed in 1992 and 2004; singings continued in Ozark through at least 2009. We trace no other examples of this 1934 first edition at auction.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
(religion.)
Two notebooks of the Rev. Melvin H. Hudson of Midland, TX.
Midland, TX, circa 1948-1962
[31], [82] manuscript and typed pages. 2 volumes. Looseleaf binders, 5 and 7 inches high; minor wear.
The Rev. Melvin Holland Hudson (1918-2008) was a Texan native who served in the Army in World War Two and (according to his notebook) gave his first sermon at Midland’s Ideal Baptist Church at the age of 30. The smaller and apparently earlier of these notebooks includes sermon notes, an address book, and notes on other preachers who studied under the Rev. J.M. Woodard. The second volume contains typed sermon notes, notes on Sunday School fund collections, church meeting notes from 1959 and 1960, and the text of three hymns.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(religion.) richard mccrary, artist.
Jesus: Look Not Upon Me Because I Am Black.
New York: African American Art International Publishing, 1975
Poster, 22 x 17 inches; minimal wear.
None traced in OCLC, at auction, or elsewhere.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(science.) burt g. wilder.
The Brain of the American Negro.
New York: National Negro Committee, 1909
Numerous illustrations. 66, 222-225 pages as issued. 8vo, original printed wrappers, minor wear to backstrip; minimal wear to contents.
An offprint from the rare first Proceedings of the National Negro Conference (see Swann’s 30 March 2017 sale, lot 227), which included important work by W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida Wells-Barnett. Burt Green Wilder (1841-1909) was a white neurologist at Cornell University with a personal interest in the subject of race relations, as he had spent the Civil War years as the surgeon of the 55th Massachusetts Infantry (brother regiment to the 54th Massachusetts of Glory fame). Most of this article is a scientific effort to address the question: “Do any physical characteristics of the brain of the American Negro warrant discrimination against him?” He concludes “There has been found no constant feature by which the Negro brain may certainly be distinguished from that of a Caucasian, whereas either of them is at once distinguishable from the brain of an ape” (page 40). Numerous illustrations of brains are included to underscore his point. The article then takes an unexpected turn with a section titled “American Negroes in the Civil War,” drawing on his personal war experience as evidence that the soldiers of the 55th Massachusetts exhibited “as high a kind of moral courage as has been chronicled in the history of the world.”
Estimate
$500 – $750
Sports
(sports.) jackie robinson, editor.
Complete run of the magazine Our Sports.
New York, May-October [1953]
5 issues with original pictorial wrappers, each 11 x 8½ inches, minor wear and soiling; internal condition generally strong, missing parts of 2 leaves.
Billing itself as “the Negro’s own sports magazine,” it featured coverage of all sports, with a particular emphasis on baseball, by leading black and white sportswriters. Typical articles included “Will a Negro Ever Become Manager in the Big Leagues?”, Roger Kahn’s “What White Big Leaguers Really Think of Negro Players”, and Jackie Robinson’s own “Jackie Climbs out on a Limb,” in which he predicts his own Brooklyn Dodgers to repeat as National League champs (they did). Toni Stone, the Negro Leagues’ first female baseball player, is profiled in the first issue, page 15. Featured on the covers are 4 baseball players (Larry Doby, Monte Irvin, Minnie Miñoso, and Satchel Paige), plus football player George Taliaferro, the first African American drafted by the NFL. “All issues are quite scarce. Complete runs are virtually unknown”–Lomazow, American Periodicals, 2005 Supplement, S468.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
(sports–baseball.)
The earliest known images of Black baseball players in action.
Rochester, NY, images circa 1871
4 stereoview photographs, each with a pair of matched 3 x 2¾-inch albumen photographs mounted on original 3¼ x 7-inch mounts with photographer’s backmark and inventory list on verso; minor wear and foxing, additional manuscript captions on verso.
These photographs show an integrated group of young baseball players at the Western House of Refuge, a reform school in Rochester, NY. Taken circa 1871, they are thought to be the earliest photographs of Black baseball players in action.
The four photographs all show ballplayers at the school. One was taken from just behind the catcher, close enough to see the faces of several of the boys–in the field, at bat, running bases, or reclining while waiting their turn at bat. The teams were apparently integrated. A substantial crowd including the House of Refuge band can be seen in the background. Another photo captioned “North Wing” is taken from high above the field, showing a game in progress, again with the band standing in shallow right field. A similar view captioned “South Wing” is taken simultaneously to show another game in progress on the school’s second field (a full panorama of both fields has been seen in carte-de-visite form). Finally, another shot captioned “Gymnasium & Base Ball Boys” shows about thirty uniformed ballplayers posed around an array of outdoor exercise equipment, many of them holding or seated upon bats.
The images were originally shot in this stereo form, with infinitesimally different perspectives in the two facing images which would appear three-dimensional when seen through a special viewer. Halves of at least some of these images were also published as smaller cartes-de-visite. Mark Rucker, the leading scholar of early baseball photographs, reproduces two of these images in carte-de-visite form in his 1988 book “Baseball Cartes: The First Baseball Cards” as plate 58, describing it as “the first photo of Blacks playing ball. . . . Game action CDVs are rare, and this is the ultimate.”
Rucker placed the date of these photographs as circa 1874. However, other examples of these views have been found with the series title “Views of the Western House of Refuge, Rochester N.Y. by Bacon & Carnall.” This short-lived partnership appears in the Rochester city directories only in 1871, suggesting that the photographs were originally taken by that date. Franklin Wright Bacon (1819-1901) soon went into business on his own account at the same address, and continued publishing these views under the present “Views in Rochester and Vicinity” series title, as seen on the present examples. His firm became Franklin W. Bacon & Co. in the mid-1880s, so it would appear these prints were produced circa 1872 to 1885 from circa 1871 negatives.
The Western House of Refuge had several different baseball clubs, complete with their own uniforms. In the close-up of the game in progress, a team wearing an “A” on their uniforms is in the field, while one of the reclining boys in the foreground can be seen with a stylized spider on his uniform. The two distant views of games in progress both seem to show players wearing the “A.” The boys at the gymnasium are wearing three separate uniforms: “B,” “R” and the same “A’s” as in the ballgame. The House of Refuge baseball games were sometimes covered in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle from this era; a team called the Spiders hosted a local youth team at the House (18 October 1871), and box scores were recorded for games for teams called the Excelsiors (15 May 1875) and Blue Stockings (3 August 1875), who had largely overlapping players. The Western House of Refuge was located on Backus Street in the northwestern part of Rochester. The school was closed in 1902, and the building is long since gone; the Edgerton Recreation Center is at the site today.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,000
(sports–baseball.)
Cabinet card of Dan Penno, a pre-Negro League player from the famed Cuban Giants.
New York, 1901
Silver print, 5¼ x 3¾ inches, on photographer’s mount of “The Gem,” 495 6th Avenue, New York; minimal wear, mount remnants on verso; contemporary inscription on verso “From Daniel E. Penno, August 21th 1901.”
Dan Penno was one of only two Black players who did long stints in Rhode Island’s integrated semi-professional baseball teams in the nineteenth century, playing with various local teams from 1883 to 1890, before joining the well-known Cuban Giants of New York from 1893 to 1898, and continuing with New York-area teams through at least 1906. This portrait was taken toward the end of his playing career, when he was about 40 years old. We don’t see many portraits of pre-Negro League players, in or out of uniform.
You will not find much information on Daniel Eugene Penno in any standard reference sources, but one of the world’s leading experts is by a fortunate coincidence employed at Swann Galleries. Penno was born in East Greenwich, RI circa 1861, the son of an illiterate Cape Verdean mariner named John Penno and a local mulatto named Hannah Perry. The Cape Verdeans, descended from a mix of Portuguese settlers and enslaved Africans on a small island hundreds of miles off the coast of Africa, had a long tradition of settlement in Rhode Island. Dan married young in 1879 to Ella Maria Proffit, a member of one of Rhode Island’s most notable Black families. One modern source states that he attended Howard University, although he is not listed in Howard’s annual catalogs from 1878 to 1883. His earliest documented baseball appearance was in 1883 as a catcher for the Yellow Docks, an integrated team from the mill village of Pontiac, RI. He pitched for the 1885 Acmes in Providence, and went on to play with the white East Greenwich Alerts as well as the Providence Colored Grays in 1886. His older brother Louis was his catcher with the Colored Grays. He joined the all-Black Boston Resolutes in 1887 as an infielder, was back with the Providence Colored Grays in 1888, and was playing with a white semi-pro team in the village of Pascoag, RI in 1889. In 1890, he was playing for the Clydes of Pawtuxet Valley in the Rhode Island State League, covering center field, shortstop, and third base. Integrated teams were rare in Rhode Island in the late 1800s, but not unheard of; star pitcher William Whyte was another noteworthy Black player in the same circuit during this period.
In 1892, Penno was listed as a laborer in the industrial village of River Point, RI, but the next year, he was the starting center fielder for the 1893 Cuban Giants, alongside great pre-Negro League stars such as Hall of Famers Frank Grant and Sol White. The team went 99-12 that year, and played regular Sunday games at Leo Park in Queens County. On 31 August 1896, Penno and some of his teammates were arrested for playing Sunday baseball in Long Island City, NY–a common occupational hazard for ballplayers of all races in that era. He was with the Cuban Giants as late as 1898. In later years, he was spotted with the “Genuine Cuban Giants” in 1901, the Jersey Cubans in 1902, and with the New York Colored Giants from 1904 to at least 1906. He was never a star, but was good enough to play at least semi-professionally for more than twenty years, including some stints with very good teams. He remained in Manhattan after his playing career. In the 1920 census, he was living on 131st Street and working as a porter in Grand Central Station. He died in Manhattan on 25 July 1924.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(sports–boxing.)
Press photograph of Jack Johnson landing a punch against Jess Willard in 1915.
Havana, Cuba, 5 April 1915
Photograph, 7½ x 6 inches, with International News Photos inked stamp and pencil captions on verso; cropped, minimal wear.
Johnson appears to be holding his own here, but this is actually the fight where he lost his hard-won world heavyweight championship at the age of 37.
Estimate
$400 – $600
(sports–boxing.)
U.S. Olympic Team Trials Boxing Finals program featuring Cassius Clay.
San Francisco, CA: San Francisco Examiner, 18 May 1960
Numerous illustrations. [48] pages. 4to, 10½ x 7½ inches, original color illustrated wrappers, minimal wear. With 10¼ x 7½-inch insert program for the 20 May finals laid in.
This is an official program for the United States Olympic Committee’s team trials, most of it being an elaborate magazine-style publication on the Olympics in general. The cover is overprinted for the boxing finals which took place at San Francisco’s Cow Palace from 18 to 20 May 1960, with the center 16 pages devoted to the boxing finals. The 8 finalists in each weight class are listed, with photographs of two or three in each class. Cassius Clay of Louisville, KY is listed in the 178-pound class (the light heavyweights, not the heavyweights), and is illustrated with a youthful portrait. A one-page insert lists the finalists who made it to 20 May, with Cassius Clay squaring off against Allen Hudson for the 178-pound championship. He won that bout, and went on to win the gold medal in the Rome Olympics before launching his storied professional career.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
(sports–cycling.) marshall w. taylor.
The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World: The Story of a Colored Boy’s Indomitable Courage.
Worcester, MA, [1928]
Frontispiece portrait, numerous text illustrations. [12], 431 pages. 8vo, publisher’s gilt cloth, spine quite faded, minor wear; inscribed on front free endpaper “Greetings to my friend Alvah S. Conant from yours truly, Major Taylor, Dec. 25th ‘28, Worcester, Mass.”
First edition, inscribed by the author. Marshall W. “Major” Taylor (1878-1932) was a Black cyclist who set numerous world records and won the world one-mile cycling championship in 1899, despite constant discrimination. Taylor was only the second Black athlete to be recognized as the world champion in any sport (after boxing bantamweight George Dixon). He is a member of Cycling Hall of Fame, and is depicted in a large monument in front of the Worcester Public Library. Only one other inscribed copy has been traced at auction since 1993.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(sports–football.)
Program from the first integrated high school football game in Washington D.C.
[Washington], 4 December 1954
Numerous illustrations. [8] pages.4to, original color illustrated wrappers, minimal wear.
This game marked the end of segregated high school football in the District of Columbia. At the conclusion of the regular season, a public high school all-star team faced off against St. John’s, an elite all-white private Catholic school. Court-mandated integration had begun that year, but had not yet reached the football teams; both white and black players later recalled never having even attended an integrated practice before. The biggest future star was one of the black players, Willie Wood, a junior at Armstrong High, who went on to star for the Green Bay Packers and was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame. However, he was not the star of the game. With six minutes remaining, white tailback Dan Droze connected with black tight end Dave Harris for a touchdown, and the public school kids won 12-7. The program contains rosters and team photos for both teams. See Dave McKenna, “Fifty-Five Years after D.C.’s First Integrated Touchdown,” Washington City Paper, 27 November 2009.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Women's History
(women’s history.)
Photographically illustrated advertising card for Mrs. Ida B. Jefferson.
Texas?, circa 1910
Photographically illustrated card, 6¾ x 4½ inches, captioned simply “Mrs. Ida. B. Jefferson”; worn at corners, moderate surface wear and light staining, extensive manuscript scrawls on verso and in lower margin.
Ida B. Jefferson (born circa 1875) was an Ohio-born faith healer and evangelist who was active in Texas from at least 1900 to 1923. She is listed in the 1900 census as a widowed preacher in Schulenberg, TX, and in 1920 as an A.M.E. minister in Gregg County, TX. The Dallas Express of 27 November 1920 described her as a resident of Longview, TX and added that “this noble woman can cure you of any disease, no matter how bad the case is.” She ran illustrated ads across the country for her healing services and her hair restorer from 1920 to 1923. She was divorced in Los Angeles in 1924, and no later reference has been found. This card would appear to be much earlier than her 1920s advertisements, perhaps circa 1910.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(women’s history.)
The Madam C. J. Walker Beauty Manual: A Thorough Treatise Covering all Branches of Beauty Culture.
Indianapolis, IN: Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, [1940]
Numerous text illustrations. 287 pages. 8vo, publisher’s cloth, moderate soiling and wear; moderate dampstaining to early leaves only, a few ink and pencil notes; early Washington DC owner’s name inscribed on front free endpaper.
Third edition of this seminal beauty manual. Laid in are two leaves of the student’s notes on scalp massage, dermatology, and heart anatomy.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
(women’s history.)
Placard for Hy-Beaute Hair Dressings.
Atlanta, GA: Hy Beaute Chemical Co., circa early 1950s
Poster, 13½ x 9½ inches, printed in red, blue, and brown, with cardboard stand mounted on verso as issued; minor wear.
Advertises three products for “falling hair and itching scalp”: their “Special Double Strength Hair Dressing,” “Slik-Down Pomade,” and “Smokeless Pressing Oil.” The company advertised in the Black press from 1946 until 1958, with somewhat similar ads appearing in 1953.
Estimate
$300 – $400
(women’s history.) bessie m. gant.
Bess Gant’s Cook Book.
Culver City, CA: Murray & Gee, 1947
79 pages. 4to (10 x 7 inches), publisher’s illustrated wrappers, moderate toning, original plastic comb binding partly perished, front wrapper coming detached, otherwise minor wear; minor wear to contents; later ownership inscription on first page.
Third edition, greatly expanded. Bessie M. Gant (circa 1902-1962) was also known for her weekly Pittsburgh Courier column, “Bess’ Secrets ‘bout Good Things to Eat,” which ran from 1939 to 1956. After years as a private chef and restaurateur in Chicago and Pittsburgh, she moved to Los Angeles and became known as a chef to the stars. The last 5 pages of this cookbook are devoted to “Favorite Recipes of Famous Personalities,” including a chicken mousse with avocados favored by Lena Horne, butterscotch pears for Hattie McDaniel, and other recipes for Walt Disney, Katherine Hepburn, Carmen Miranda, and more. The first two editions of her cookbook came out in 1938 and 1940, and are quite scarce (none of the 1938 and 2 of the 1940 in OCLC).
Estimate
$400 – $600
(women’s history.)
Wanted: Justice for Joanne Little.
Durham, NC: Joanne Little Defense Fund, circa 1974
Poster, 17½ x 11 inches; horizontal fold, uneven toning, minor wear.
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 the first woman in American history to be acquitted of murder in self-defense against sexual assault. None traced at auction.
Estimate
$600 – $900
(women’s history.)
Donation tin for the Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial Fund.
Washington: National Council of Negro Women, circa early 1960s
Metal box, 4½ x 3¼ x 1½ inches, with slotted lid and unlocked hinged base, illustrated with a portrait of Bethune, lightly stamped “901” on back; light tape stains across front and sides, other minor wear.
The fund was launched circa 1960 to build a monument to the great educator and activist Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955); the National Council of Negro Women left the 1318 Vermont Avenue headquarters noted here circa 1965. The statue was unveiled by the Council in Washington in 1974, and was the first on public land in the capital to honor a Black American or a woman. It is emblazoned with the same words seen on one side of this donation box: “I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you a thirst for education. I leave you a respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity. I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow men. I leave you, finally, a responsibility to our young people.”
Estimate
$500 – $750
(women’s history.) national council of negro women.
Black Women’s Unity Drive: Commitment, Unity, Self Reliance.
Washington, DC, 1970
Poster, 22 x 17 inches; 3 cello tape stains, minor wear.
This poster was produced during the 1958-1990 presidency of Dorothy Height. The Unity Drive was launched in 1970, and the artwork by Kofi Bailey bears the same date. None traced at auction or in OCLC.
Estimate
$500 – $750
(women’s history.)
Dedication Ceremonies of the Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial.
Washington, 10 July 1974
4 pages, 9¾ x 7¼ inches, on one folding sheet of heavy stock paper; uneven toning and minor wear to interior pages.
The first public statue in the nation’s capital to honor an African American–or a woman. The speakers included Cicely Tyson, Shirley Chisholm, and Andrew Young. Includes a short biography of Bethune, a list of guests, and a long list of sponsoring organizations.
WITH–a booklet printed for the event, “Time: Mary McLeod Bethune, 1875-1955,” in the style of Time Magazine. 24 pages; moderate dampstaining. No place: National Council of Negro Women, [1976]
Estimate
$400 – $600
(women’s history.) anna julia cooper.
A Voice from the South, by a Black Woman of the South.
Xenia, OH, 1892
Frontispiece portrait. [4], 304 pages. 8vo, original two-toned publisher’s gilt cloth, moderate wear, rear joint splitting; hinges split, inscribed on the title page “Harvey Ray, Kind regards of the author, June 10, 1910.”
Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (1858-1964) was born into slavery, spent her early years in Raleigh, NC, graduated from Oberlin College in 1884, and earned a master’s degree in mathematics there four years later–one of the first two Black women in America to earn the M.A. She moved to Washington, where she helped found the Colored Women’s League. “A Voice from the South,” her first book, was an important early expression of Black feminism, arguing that womanhood was “a vital element in the regeneration and progress of a race,” and that higher education was the means of reaching that goal.
Cooper received her doctorate degree from the Sorbonne in Paris in 1924, at the age of 66–and lived for another four decades. Afro-Americana 2699; Blockson 4288