William S. Powell Jr. must have been mighty proud to be a Tuskegee Airman. He kept his brown leather flight jacket with the 99th Pursuit Squadron patch, his helmet, his graduation diploma, flight wings, training…
Category: Military
First, I saw a black and white photograph of people on the streets looking upward, their faces giving no hint of what they were seeing. The photo beneath it showed a minister in collar presumably…
Black regiment’s Civil War flag & the stories it could tell
Posted in Art, Black history, Civil War, history, and Military
What this flag must have seen! It started out as a piece of silk cloth in Philadelphia, painted by David Bustill Bowser with an emblem of a black Union soldier waving goodbye to a white woman…
A wooden folding organ to carry on your travels
Posted in Military, Music, and Uncategorized
When I saw the organ on the auction-house website, I knew I had to see it. I’m one of those folks who’ve taken piano lessons ad-nauseum and still can’t play. So, when I see anything…
Tuskegee Airmen 1943 “Buy War Bonds” poster
Posted in Black history, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, history, and Military
When the United States needed lots of cash to fund its role in World War II, it turned to its citizens to buy war bonds. Using propaganda posters, the country played on their patriotism, asking…
One collector’s love affair with novelty cigarette lighters
Posted in collectibles, Military, and Personal items
It was a collection that bespoke of a different time when just about everyone lit up. This collector had pulled together novelty lighters in an abundance of shapes. I’ve been going to auctions for so long…
A stop-off at Tuskegee to honor an Airman uncle
Posted in Black history, history, Military, and Uncategorized
My uncle Charles – whom some of us called Dye and his siblings called CW – was a Tuskegee Airman, but I didn’t fully recognize it until long after he had died. I should have remembered,…
WWII women pilots on a deck of playing cards
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, history, Military, and Women
The women looked cool striding purposely to some unknown place in their leather bomber jackets, full-legged pants and thick boots. Their backdrop was a World War II plane with an imprinted name of which I…