I came across the artist James M. Washington Jr. by chance. I was searching for artwork by Philadelphia ceramicist Frances Serber among 1970s photographs of public art compiled by the Fairmount Park Art Association. That’s when I saw the…
Category: history
I saw the chicken first. I was perusing the tables at an auction house when I came across a game board with a large brown hen. It looked like something out of a carnival or…
Many of us were taught this seemingly unassailable fact: Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. We were too young and too innocent and too oblivious to question how he could have founded a country that was…
The last house where Paul Robeson lived
Posted in Art, history, Music, Performers, Plays, Sports, and theater
Arcenia McClendon was telling a story about the time she met Paul Robeson: She was a young school teacher in her early 20s and she passed the house at 50th and Walnut Streets in Philadelphia on her…
Vintage farm wagon with Gourds for Sale sign
Posted in collectibles, Equipment, and history
The farm wagon was an old workhorse that had seen better years. It still had its wooden wheels, and its black paint had deep chips and scratches but was mostly intact. The wagon was perhaps the…
Striking filigree balconies on Martha’s Vineyard cottages
Posted in Architecture/Buildings, history, and Religion
We were walking along a paved path bordered by petunias near our hotel, leaving behind momentarily the white wooden rocking chairs overlooking a lovely view of Oak Bluffs Harbor and anchored boats. It was mid-morning and…
The dress had seen better days. Literally. From what I could see – I wasn’t about to touch it – it was stained and torn but still gave notice that it was fashionable in its…
Should you collect the Tubman $20 bill?
Posted in collectibles, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and history
When I learned that Harriet Tubman would be the face on the new $20 bill, I rejoiced. She is a woman so deserving of such an honor. Then the collector in me asked a practical…
Simple form leads to history of POW camps in U.S.
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, history, and Military
What an odd but interesting document, I thought, as I spied the blank form titled “Prisoner of War” inside a plastic covering on the auction table. I’d never seen anything like it before and wondered…
Diary – not Bible – speaks of family & country’s history
Posted in Books, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and history
Another diary, I groaned silently as I read the words in gilt on the cover. I had just seen a small thick diary on the box-lots table at the auction house, and I wasn’t ready for another. This…