African Americans have made extraordinary contributions to the history and culture of the United States as part of the nation and apart from it. This month, Auction Finds presents “28 days (Plus 1)” of this collaborative history. The additional day is intended to break Black history out of the stricture of a month into its rightful place as an equal partner in the history of America. Each day, I will offer artifacts culled from the auction tables and my research, along with the stories they hold.
Feb. 20, 2022
Ticket stub opens door to Black history
The “Exhibit of American Negroes” was set up in a plain white building on the banks of the Seine River among the other exhibits at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris. The fair was held to celebrate the recently departed century and the one just starting.
The exhibit of the achievements of Black Americans was assembled by writer/activist/scholar W.E.B. DuBois, lawyer Thomas J. Calloway and Daniel A.P. Murray, a librarian at the Library of Congress. The federal government appropriated $15,000 for the project. The exhibit included photographs, musical compositions, books, poetry, paintings, models, maps, patents, pamphlets and documents on the contributions of Blacks to American culture. The exhibition – along with Dubois and Calloway individually – won numerous awards. It was ignored by the European and U.S media, but covered by the Black press.
It was, DuBois said, “an honest straightforward exhibit of a small nation of people, picturing their life and development without apology or gloss, and above all made by themselves. In a way this marks an era in the history of the Negroes of America.” Read the full story.
