Next weekend, I will be joining another history buff in a presentation on historical treasures to look for in your home. It’s part of the 2012 Black History & Culture Showcase that has been held in Philadelphia for the last eight years.
This will be our first time participating in the showcase and our first such presentation. My collaborator is a woman named Rebecca who knows a lot more about black-history collecting than me. Her head is a storehouse of knowledge, and she reads just about everything she can find on the subject. I think she’s an expert, but she modestly declines the label. She has a very large collection of black books and other memorabilia that I’ll eventually check out.
The showcase at the Philadelphia Convention Center is produced by Everett & Associates Inc. and the Proud African American Foundation, according to its website. Its offers artifacts, presentations, history-makers and exhibits celebrating the achievements of African Americans. Our presentation will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 7, and noon Sunday, April 8.
We will also set up tables to show off some of the items that she has collected and I have written about in my blog or bought at auction. Some of these are items that have both financial and/or historical value.
We all have relatives who’ve kept papers and documents, family photos and portraits, marriage licenses and birth certificates, old books and Bibles, and old dolls and artwork that we considered mildly interesting but figured who’d want the junk. You’d be surprised. There are plenty of people who do, from collectors to museums to eBayers. So we shouldn’t just throw it away.
This is not just about African American history, but everyone’s history. Most of what I see at auction comes from all colors of homes. Black memorabilia, though, seems to be very popular now. Bidders tangle over it, so much so that I have to bid pretty high sometimes to get it. Most dealers are buying it to sale, while I’m buying it as an historical keepsake.
Some of the items in our homes should be kept for sentimental value, but others may be ripe for selling – and not summarily tossed in the weekly garbage. In our presentation, we’ll show folks what to look for, what to keep, what to sell and where to sell it, and how to research it.
As I pondered what to put on my table at the showcase and offer in the presentation, I came up with a list of vintage – as in old – items from auction that came out of someone’s home. I hope we will spur people to be alert as they stroll through a relative’s home with antiques, or go through old trunks, drawers, boxes and basements.
“I Am A Man” poster – It recorded a very important event in civil rights history: the 1968 sanitation workers strike in Memphis involving Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It sold quite well recently at auction.
Ebony and Jet magazines – I always flip through old magazines – be they Life, Saturday Evening Post or Look (I’m especially looking for the Jan. 14, 1964, copy with Norman Rockwell’s illustration of federal marshals accompanying Ruby Bridges to a white school). I’m also looking for copies of Ebony with an advice column written by Dr. King. It ran from September 1957 to December 1958.
Black business directories by cities. Some of these did well at a recent auction.
Patterson-Greenfield car advertising poster. This was a car made by an African American company at the turn of the 20th century. Ads for the vehicle ran in the Crisis and Alexander’s Magazine.
Old family Bibles with names, birthdates, marriages, etc. These come up often at auction and are snapped up.
Old dolls, black and white. There’s a huge community of people who collect, repair and love dolls. The early German and French dolls are very collectible. At a doll show once, I found out that a black man named Leo Moss hand-made dolls at the turn of the 20th century in my hometown of Macon, GA.
Photos and documents of black Civil War soldiers, WWI & WWII soldiers, Tuskegee Airmen, and WACs and other black women in the military
Adult and children books, especially first edition and rare ones.
Sewing items, including boxes, silver thimbles and more.
Family photos and portraits, photos of history-makers and autographed photos of entertainers (it might be a bit too early for Denzel). The photos tell the history of all of us as a people, our culture at a given time and how we lived. Among black photographers, some of the most important were James Van Der Zee, Teenie Harris and Roy DeCarava.
Pullman porter paraphernalia
Old cameras, especially the ones with bellows and made of wood.
Paintings and prints, depending on the artist.
Fancy buttons. Some collectible ones are as beautiful as jewelry.
Lionel trains and tracks. Not all of them, but a little research can tell you if yours are valuable.
Vintage telephones
German Black Forest cuckoo clocks and others
Singer sewing machines. Those big heavy ones, especially the Featheweight, which is very sought-after because people still use them.
Underwood and other manual typewriters. These heavy things weighed a ton. Some folks just want only the keys.
