Friday is the day I answer readers’ questions. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…
Category: Books
S&H Green Stamps sign evokes memories of Don Lee poem
Posted in Black history, Books, and Signs
I could see the S&H Green Stamps sign clear across the room, hanging on a peg wall with its red, white and green colors pocked with a few black spots and nicks. The sign was…
First look at copy of Negro Motorist Green Book
Posted in Books, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and travel
The book looked much smaller than I had imagined. I guess I was expecting something with more volume and heft, given its enormous importance in the lives of African American travelers during the 1930s-1960s. The…
The big hunk of a dictionary was resting on the auction table like a giant paperweight. From the look of it, I could tell that it was ancient. So I wondered how this old storehouse of American language…
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…
When I moved to Philadelphia some years ago, a colleague at the newspaper told me that African Americans had sat for artist Andrew Wyeth, and that he’d given them some of his paintings. I was…
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…
I bought the cardboard box of books for “The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar.” There were a half-dozen or more old books in the box but I only wanted that one. I was afraid…
Readers ask about WWII artifacts, Wyeth book & Searles art
Posted in Art, Books, Broadway plays, history, and Movies
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…
When I heard the auctioneer say the word “African,” I instinctively looked up. He was holding a large and heavy book in his hand, unsteadily, as he flipped to a front page. From where I…