Uncovering Our History Through The Relics Left Behind
Posted in Civil War, collectibles, and history
I’m not a collector of war relics, but I’m always curious about history. That’s what drove me to stop and ask an auction-house assistant to take some Civil War relics from a glass case so…
Posted in Black history, Books, Civil War, and history
The engravings of blacks were the first that caught my eye. They were among a group of eight from a book published in the late 19th century by a woman named Mary A. Livermore, a…
The male auction-goer placed his numbered sticker right dab in the center of the fabric case. The sticker’s bright yellow color was a brilliant contrast to the faded and tattered gray lining of what looked to…
Posted in Death, flea market, history, and Military
You can’t sell those on eBay, the man told the dealer, referring to two cast iron Civil War grave markers that she was selling at a flea market over the weekend. The two markers were…
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Photos
The collection was awesome. Laid out in the glass case in front of me, the display of photos of African Americans who journeyed west in the late 1800s was both expansive and illustrative. The collection included…
Posted in Black history, Civil War, Military, and slavery
We had just arrived at the Visitors Center in Boston Common when the woman behind the counter mentioned the Black Heritage Trail tour starting at 2 p.m. It was about 15 minutes beforehand, and we were…
The magazine-size book was tucked beneath a group of other papers. I found it because I always troll through ephemera at auction. For me, it’s like peeling back the layers of a mystery; I never know…
Over the weekend, I went with a friend to see Robert Redford’s new movie “The Conspirator,” about Mary Surratt, who was tried and convicted of conspiring to kill President Lincoln in 1865. I know the…
Posted in Black history, and slavery
Last October, a reader named Bob came across one of my blog posts about an auction of Nazi paraphernalia. In the post, I was pretty adamant about not-never-ever having any inclination to buy such artifacts.…
Posted in Black history, Civil War, and Military
Bill Fox slid the slightly faded and folded document carefully from the clean white envelope with my name on the front. He was just as excited as me about what we had before us. It was…
