Our March 30 Printed & Manuscript African Americana sale will offer an outstanding manuscript broadside of the 13th Amendment ending slavery, signed by the Vice President and 111 congressmen. It is one of a handful of commemorative copies circulated in the halls of Congress for signatures.
The slavery era is documented by a correspondence archive of Richmond slave dealers — Dickinson, Hill & Co. Bidders will also have the opportunity to view an unpublished minute book of the African Civilization Society from the papers of the abolitionist Theodore Bourne; important Black abolitionists Martin Delany and Henry Highland Garnet were among the leaders of the organization.
The field of African American visual art is documented through exhibit posters and catalogues, two pieces of illustration art by Loïs Mailou Jones, and a wonderful archive of 35 personal letters by the sculptor Richmond Barthé. Selections for music collectors include an archive of photographs, negatives, and slides taken or developed by jazz great Dizzy Gillespie.
Related Reading
A 1958 issue of the Negro Motorist Green Book is fresh to market, as well as an extensive archive from a 1964 participant in Freedom Summer. Perhaps the strongest section of the sale related to Black participation in the Civil War, including a diary by the surgeon of the famous 54th Massachusetts Infantry (the “Glory” regiment); the scarce original source photograph of the controversial engraving “United States Soldiers at Camp William Penn”; and an outstanding full-length profile portrait of a Black cavalryman.
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