A reader recently sent me a question about the Negro Motorist Green Book, compiled more than 50 years ago as a guide for black travelers. Meanwhile, I suggested the guide to a woman who was…
Category: Ephemera/Paper/Documents
I can imagine Anne Tripp dressed in her best, her husband on her arm, their tickets in his hand as they approached the gate to Shibe Park in North Philadelphia. It was Thanksgiving Day 1945…
As we stood in her basement, the woman wanted to show me a photo of her family in an old copy of Ebony magazine underneath some papers. I had seen one Ebony and an early…
Reminder: Save those Montford Marines artifacts
Posted in Black history, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Military, and Photos
The group of men sat proudly at their table, their Montford Point Marines banner attached across the front. They were a quiet group, not badgering or calling out to those of us enjoying the displays at a…
Readers ask about Coke, newspapers and books
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Reader questions, and Tins
Many of us have items that we inherited or were given to us, and we know very little about them. Since I write about auction finds with a little history to them, I get questions from readers about…
My friend Rebecca had seen something on the wall at the history library that she was eager to show me. We were attending a Juneteenth emancipation conference sponsored last weekend by the Library Company of Philadelphia, and I…
It must have been one horrific murder perpetrated that July 4, 1958, on the tony Main Line in the Philadelphia suburbs. A successful real estate salesman named Max Kravitz had been found beaten and shot in his home. Soon…
“Do you like them?” the auction-goer asked me as we stood in front of a table at the auction house. He had seen me rifle through a box and spread out about a dozen envelopes…
I could almost hear the man singing his heart out as he stood strumming his guitar next to his singing partner who was cupping a mike close to his mouth. It was so close that I first thought he…