I could tell there was another clear frame behind the one with a sheet-music cover of a black woman in orange kerchief lovingly holding a white child in night clothes. I wasn’t sure who was…
Category: Ephemera/Paper/Documents
Readers ask about dream book & stereoview cards
Posted in Books, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Photos, and Reader questions
Two years ago, I wrote about Prof. Uriah Konje’s dream book of numbers that purported to help you win the lottery or any other similar game of chance. I’m still getting inquires about the book and how…
Native American stereoview cards
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Photos
I was thinking “Wow” as I flipped through each of the stereoview cards of Native American photos from the 1870s. The cards showed the country’s native people making blankets, sitting with family, posing alone and…
Kenneth Slaughter & Wings Over Jordan
Posted in Black history, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Music, and Religion
They were in a different CBS studio each Sunday, this group of singers with some of the best voices in spiritual music. But Wings Over Jordan couldn’t just walk through the front door of hotels to…
The small flat cards were scattered about in a box lot of metal items that had no relation to them. There were about 15 to 20, likely someone’s collection or a compilation pulled together by…
A box of old New York hotel keys
Posted in Architecture/Buildings, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and travel
The box of keys with gold, maroon, green and sky blue nameplates spoke of times past. I could tell not only by their shapes but the brass keys on the ring. Hotels don’t use real…
Nostalgia: Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald road tours
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Music, and Performers
The bold red colors on the booklets were transfixing. They caught my eye before I even got to the faces on the covers, some of which I soon and instantly recognized. The incomparable Nat King…
Readers ask about African American art, matchbooks & dolls
Posted in Art, collectibles, Dolls, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Reader questions
Each Friday, I answer readers’ questions about items they own, helping them with research on the history and directing them to resources to determine the value. What I’ve learned is that there is no quick way…
I had quickly thumbed through the box of papers, pamphlets and other documents, but even from that cursory look, I knew it was something that I wanted. I knew that inside – out of my…