Uncovering Our History Through The Relics Left Behind
Posted in Art, and Black history
When I was in college, I was a radical of sorts, probably more in my mind than in actuality. It was during the early 1970s when college campuses were hotbeds of revolutionary ideas and action:…
Posted in Art, and Black history
The first time I saw the artworks of Tanya Murphy, they felt very familiar. Their earthiness took me back to my southern roots, her old photographs on top of old photographs, sealed in a shellac that…
Posted in Art, Black history, and Performers
The email asked only one question: “Did you get anything in the Doyle New York auction of Lena’s estate last week?” Instantly, I knew who Lena was, but I was surprised to learn that items…
Posted in Black history, and Music
I wandered into a room at the auction house a week ago where guns were being sold. I had zero interest in any of the guns but was more curious about who would turn up. …
Posted in Black history, Civil War, and Military
Bill Fox slid the slightly faded and folded document carefully from the clean white envelope with my name on the front. He was just as excited as me about what we had before us. It was…
Posted in Art, Black history, and Photos
One of the truly satisfying results of my auction finds are the pieces of African American history that I come across on the auction tables. From photographs to vintage records to books to artwork, each…
I keep bumping into Frank Sinatra through my auctions finds. His name has turned up several times as I researched a person or an object rooted in African American history. Sure, I was familiar with Sinatra’s…
Posted in African American women, and Black history
For a minute at auction last weekend, I thought it was African American Women Month, not Black History Month. For there were four conspicuous images of black women: a photograph, an oil painting, a poster and a…
Posted in African American women, Art, and Black history
In the 1948 Pyramid Club catalog I got at auction, the women artists appear to share the listing with the men. Their names are right there, seemingly in no particular order and with no ranking. …
Posted in Black history, and history
Last year, I was in my basement tending clothes in the washer on the day after President Obama’s State of the Union Message. It was the one where South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted out…
