The pages of the photo album had been soiled by water, making them both coarse and puffy. The front and back covers were missing, and some photos had been deliberately cut out. It was lying in a glass…
Category: Photos
A taste of black history
Posted in Art, Black history, and Photos
One of the truly satisfying results of my auction finds are the pieces of African American history that I come across on the auction tables. From photographs to vintage records to books to artwork, each…
Vintage photos of a well-to-do black family
Posted in Black history, and Photos
Were my eyes deceiving me, I wondered as I glanced at the group of photos lying in the bottom half of a small flat box on the auction table. A nicely dressed and coiffed black woman sitting in a…
Soldiers and their keepsakes from war
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Military, and Photos
I was reading a story in my local newspaper this morning about a soldier’s experiences in World War II. It had been written by a columnist whose family had sent him correspondence that this soldier-cousin had…
Old nightclub souvenir party photos
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Photos
Once, when I joined some friends on one of those two-hour ship excursions in the middle of the bay in Tampa, FL, the tour company had each party to stop and pose for those silly photos.…
Discovering the identity of a Tuskegee airman
Posted in Black history, history, and Photos
Back in November, on Veterans Day, I wrote about some photos I had found at auction of 10 African American soldiers, apparently taken during World War II. Since the photos had been done by the…
Searching for J.N. Wilson’s stereoview cards
Posted in Black history, collectibles, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Photos
I got an email recently from a great-granddaughter of Savannah photographer J.N. (Jerome Nelson) Wilson, whose stereoview card of two black boys from the 19th century has been the subject of recent news stories. Tina Wilson…
Black images and America’s shameful past
Posted in civil rights movement, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Photos
The images spoke their own evilness. Paul Robeson – one of the smartest and most talented men in the world – toting a bale of cotton, staggering out of a bar singing “Ol’ Man River”…
Buzz is still on story of ‘rare’ slave photo
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Photos, and slavery
Last week, questions were raised about what was described as a “rare” photo of two slave boys and the identity of the photographer who captured them. I wrote about the photo, too, out of curiosity. I’m an…
A story has been circulating over the last few days about a photo of two “slave” boys, one supposedly named John, found during an estate sale in North Carolina. The buyer was the collector Keya Morgan, whom…