Have you heard of the practice of “bundling?” I hadn’t either until recently when I was going through a stack of books at an auction. When I came across a thin paperback with the title…
Category: Books
I have no memories of the encyclopedia salesman. No one came to our door in rural Georgia trying to sell us encyclopedias that we could not afford. The only ones I ever saw were at…
1900s Hampton photos illustrate students at work
Posted in Black history, and Books
I had learned of Frances Benjamin Johnston’s photos after finding a ticket stub at auction for the 1900 Paris International Exposition. She had been commissioned by Hampton Institute to photograph the progress of a school that…
Whenever I see a vintage cookbook, I quickly reach for it and open it up. I’m usually looking for interesting recipes to try or sweet stories to read. At auction recently I thumbed through one…
When I saw the pictures of the children in the book, it took me back decades. When I was a child they were like our fictitious rich cousins, always enjoying their good life, with me and millions…
Book of “household hints” is as seamless as time
Posted in Books, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Home
I seem to be drawn to cookbooks from way back. I’m curious about the recipes and their ingredients, and how different foods and dishes were prepared then compared to now. I am just as intrigued when…
It wasn’t the sort of old book I’d normally grab at auction. I’m usually looking for books with an African American theme, ones that tell the story of my history. But the title of this…
I could hold the books quite easily in my open hand, they were that small. They were obviously made for children based on their tininess and the familiar characters on the covers: The Three Pigs…
Houdini’s Big Little Book of Magic
Posted in Books, and Performers
It would take more than magic to put this little book back together again. Its spine was torn, its cover was marked with a jagged water stain, and its cover was slightly ajar. The word…
‘Ordinary’ black women who did extraordinary work at NASA
Posted in African American women, Books, and Movies
Margot Lee Shetterly thought nothing of the black female scientists who peopled her childhood world in Hampton, VA. Her father was a research scientist at the Langley Research Center in her hometown and he worked with…