Uncovering Our History Through The Relics Left Behind
Posted in Christmas, and Guess what it is
The big square gift box still wore its wrapping paper covered in poinsettias and a big red bow. The paper was a bit faded, and the gift looked as if it had never been unwrapped. I…
Someone may have kept the two bright sunshine-yellow and forest-green road guides as a way to remember their travel adventure. They’d gone to the Delaware Motor Club office in Wilmington, DE, on June 25, 1947,…
Posted in Black history, civil rights movement, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
The bright yellow sheet was hidden beneath a pile of nothing papers, and I wouldn’t have found it if I wasn’t in the habit of combing through documents at auction. It was in a cheap…
Posted in collectibles, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and history
When I learned that Harriet Tubman would be the face on the new $20 bill, I rejoiced. She is a woman so deserving of such an honor. Then the collector in me asked a practical…
Posted in Art, Carvings, collectibles, and Figurines
From where I stood, staring across rows of heavy furniture at the auction house, I could barely make out the carvings framing the mirror. I could see that they were colorful and a little crude,…
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, history, and Military
What an odd but interesting document, I thought, as I spied the blank form titled “Prisoner of War” inside a plastic covering on the auction table. I’d never seen anything like it before and wondered…
Posted in Games, and Guess what it is
You couldn’t miss the sunshine-yellow box on the auction table. Maybe that’s what the maker had in mind when it chose such a brilliant color and a collage of leisure activities that reminded you of Florida,…
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Uncategorized
The sheet of paper looked like a puzzle. It was covered in a crazy patchwork of cellophane tape that had turned golden-brown with age. It was a handwritten letter that had been ripped into pieces and…
As I sat in the theater, I tried to summon their excitement and anxiety. It wasn’t often that they could sit anywhere they wanted in a Broadway theater, much less watch black performers sing and…
I love these types of antique items and tend to gravitate toward them at auction. I’m drawn to their construction and the etchings in their small glass windows. Most of these etchings – which always seem to be…
