A Chicago construction worker recently threatened to burn some historical documents belonging to the first African American graduate of Harvard University. He was angry because college officials refused to pay him the $60,000 that he…
Tag: auction
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…
A print of Buffalo Soldiers at Cuba’s San Juan Hill
Posted in Art, Black history, history, and Military
As I approached the display of books and documents on the table, the words 9th and 10th Calvary in a title stirred my memory. Weren’t those the African American soldiers who charged with Teddy Roosevelt, I…
Reader asks about “Balky Mule” tray with African American motif
Posted in collectibles, and Glassware
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…
A Gideons Bible in my hotel nightstand
Posted in Books, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, history, Religion, and travel
I was searching the drawers for a notepad to write something when I pulled opened the drawer to the nightstand in the room at the Charlotte, NC, hotel. There, placed neatly and squarely next to the…
Discovering grits, black history & the ‘big house’ in NC
Posted in Black history, Culture, slavery, and travel
Before we had even reached Asheville, NC, I had read on the web that the locals considered Tupelo Honey Café as one of the best in the city. So when a worker at our hotel…
Baby dolls don’t ‘eat, cry, or grow up & sass’
Posted in Doll collectors, and Dolls
Etta Houston didn’t start collecting dolls until the 1970s when her youngest child got married. First, family members would give her dolls, which I’m sure she accepted graciously, and she bought some on her own.…
It was raining buckets outside but inside was as dry as cornstalks in an autumn field. I was at Heritage Weekend at the Folk Art Center, milepost 382 on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville,…