![African Civilization Society [Constitution of the African Civilization Society]. African...](/pictures/thumb/List021.jpg?v=1583873948)
New York: African Civilization Society, 1858. Single leaf folded, 4 pp. 8 ¼ x 7 ¾ inches. The African Civilization Society was formed in 1858 by several prominent members of Brooklyn’s Weeksville community. The second article of this document, the organization’s constitution, states its goals as follows: “The objects of.....
Philadelphia: 1799. 4 3/4 x 8 1/4 in. (121 x 212 mm). Scattered spotting, light to moderate horizontal center crease. In frame with modern bust portrait of Allen. An incidental but highly suggestive document from the life of Richard Allen, whom historian Richard Newman has argued should be recognized as.....
Tuskegee: 1930s. When Prentice Polk enrolled at Tuskegee Institute at the age of eighteen, he had every intention of becoming a painter. The staff at Tuskegee decided that his goals were impractical, and at the advice of the Institute’s official photographer, C.M. Battey, Polk instead decided to pursue a career.....
Massachusetts: 1926. Ink on paper, 18 ½ x 23 ½ inches. Alexander Johnson, an African-American musician from New Bedford, enlisted in the army at age 16 and was believed for some time to be the first African-American musician in the Union Army. He mustered into mustered into Company "C" of.....
Newburgh: Abel A. Peck, 1860s. 3 ½ x 2 ¼ albumen print on larger mount. A carte-de-visite copy of a folk art painting probably painted c. 1820s-1830s. William Seymore (1786-1846) was a Methodist minister in Bellvale, New York. Edward Ruttenber and L.H. Clark, in their 1881 History of Orange County.....
Boston: c. 1874. Albumen carte-de-visite photograph, 3 ¾ x 2 ¼ inches, on original mount with photographer’s mark to verso. Joshua Bowen Smith was a Boston-based abolitionist and conductor on the Underground Railroad, who also owned his own catering company. Born in Philadelphia to a British father and mother of.....
Fort Ethan Allen: 1910. Gelatin silver print mounted to board, 16 ¼ x 14 ½ inches. The 10th Cavalry was one of the original “Buffalo Soldier” regiments of the post-Civil War segregated U.S. Army, first seeing action in the Indian Wars. Their band is shown here most likely during their.....
Providence, et al. 1799-1866. Anna Almy Jenkins was the granddaughter of the abolitionist Quaker patron Moses Brown. She was active in the Religious Society of Friends in the middle of the nineteenth century, at a time when few women were involved in public religious life, though Quakers in general were.....
Washington, D.C. 1970. [3] pp. stapled mimeograph program for a service commemorating King’s birthday at The Washington Cathedral, January 15, 1970. Stapled together with a [1] pp. letter from Bishop Henry C. Bunton to the Interreligious Committee on Race Relations (ICRR) notifying members of the event, and including a [1].....
New York, et al. 1940s-1960s. Five 8 x 10 and two 5 x 7 inch gelatin silver prints, with Bradley’s estate marks to versos. Jack Bradley was a Cape Cod native who, after graduating from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, fell in love with Jazz after seeing Louis Armstrong perform at.....
Boston: Oliver Ditson and Company, 1863. First Edition. Manuel Fenellosa and his brother-in-law Manuel Emilio came to the United States from Spain in 1836 aboard the SS United States. They settled in Salem, Massachussetts, first forming a band and then a music school. They were friends of the publisher John.....
Los Angeles: 1950s. Silver gelatin print, 8 x 10 inches. With Morehead’s marks to verso. A scarce and perhaps unrecorded image of Charlie Parker playing table tennis, likely taken in Los Angeles, by the pioneering Los Angeles-based African-American photographer Howard Morehead. Morehead, originally from Topeka, Kansas, served as member of.....
Mostly Los Angeles: 1970s. Quarto, laminated photographic cloth album, 10 x 11 inches, 80 photographs and assorted ephemera, most photographs 8 x 10 inches. Mostly Los Angeles, 1970s-early 1980s. Aeros Theda was a Michigan-born formally-trained musician living in California in the 1970s, where she played in several fusion/rock/jazz.....
V.p. 1890s. Oblong quarto, leatherette, heavy card stock album pages with photographs affixed. This album of photographs, assembled probably during the 1890s, is notable in three ways; for its extensive collection of notable cultural figures in the late nineteenth century including abolitionists, politicians, women’s suffrage advocates authors, etc; the inclusion.....
American: 1860s-1870s. A fine image in the larger format. Some wear to edges and light rubbing, but very good with nice contrast.
Chicago: 1940s. First Edition. 4 x 3 inch glossy silver gelatin photographs on three 6 x 11 inch disbound album leaves. A series of fifty-nine photographs taped onto three leatherette boards. A wonderfully vibrant group, showing the joyful life of an off -duty soldier in Chicago. Boards in rough shape.....
A single page document, signed by Rapier, showing collection revenue from a retail dealer in malt liquors. James Rapier was an African-American politician during the reconstruction era who served as United States Representative from Alabama from 1873-1875. After losing a re-election bid to Jaramiah Haralson in 1877, Rapier turned his.....
New York: H. Long, 1854. First Edition. 8vo, publisher’s brown cloth, 259 pp. The Vermont-born Chase moved to Tennessee in 1838. He was elected as a member of the Democratic Party to the Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Congresses, serving from 1845-1849 before returning north to New York City to practice law.....
Peterboro: Self-Published, 1855. First Edition. Single sheet folded, 10 x 10 inches. One of several public letters by Smith to Seward, this one discussing the Fugitive Slave Law. Smith, by the mid-1850s, had grown increasingly frustrated by the abolitionist movement’s willingness to compromise. Seward, an early figure in the Republican.....
J.A. Brush: Minnesota, 1877. 2 ¼ x 4 inch image on slightly larger mount. Chambers, a seven-year-old boy at the time of the Civil War, followed the soldiers Jasper Dickey and David Scofield from Georgia back to their homes in Minnesota. The two soldiers raised him. He died in 1936.....
California and New York: 1960s. Silver gelatin prints on glossy stock, most 8 x 10 inches. A fine collection of press photos from an amazing period in American music, with many classic soul singers included, many of whom were represented by the William Morris Agency. Subjects include: Clyde McPhatter, Ketty.....
Various Places: 1857-1980. Illustrated calf “Frankfurt” binding, 9 x 10 inches. With twelve scrapbook pages and twenty-eight photographs and two programs laid in. Archie Moore’s personal scrapbook, evidently started in Frankfurt in the period surrounding his fight with Hans Kalbfell, and extending onward. Moore used the scrapbook to house other.....
New York: Underwood and Underwood, 1919. First Edition. Gelatin silver prints, 7 ¾ x 5 ½ inches each on 11 ½ x 7 inch black paper mounts, captioned with affixed text. Two WWI-era press photographs related to the Negro 15th Infantry Division of the New York National Guard (a.k.a. the.....