Mar 30, 2017 - Sale 2441

Sale 2441 - Lot 162

Price Realized: $ 3,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(ART.) THOMAS, PERCIVAL C. Archive of Thomas family letters including many from African American artist Percival C. Thomas, some while on board the U.S.S. Resolute during the Spanish-American War. Washington, DC and New York, 1890's to 1920's
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A large archive of letters from the family of Percival Clinton Thomas, an African artist. Included are 34 from Percival Clinton Thomas, and over 300 from other family members and friends, most written to sister Rosa Thomas. Percival "Percy" Thomas is listed in Falk, his address at Ozone Park, Long Island. He exhibited at the Society of Independent Artists from 1934-1937. His letters are dated from 1891 to 1926, and are on various letterheads including the "United Colored Democracy" in N.Y.C. The U. S. S. Resolute cruised between Key West, Haiti and Cuba during the Spanish American War and was present at the Battle of Santiago on July 3, 1898, which Percy mentions in a letter. After the peace treaty is signed he hoped to return to New York and "start on that picture of the Battle of Santiago; I have the original here with me, which I have worked out in watercolors."
Another letter describes a visit to Santiago, where he walks into a valley and sees "150 to 200 dead Spaniards rudely buried and it is suffocating to stand the smell." Percy and his friend Rob were apparently cooks on the Resolute (the job often given to blacks). There are seven letters from his one time friend Will Martin, an officer on the ship who caused Percy to break some rules, resulting in Percy being bound in double irons for five days and no pay for 4 months. Among the many family letters are three tickets to a "Grand Concert" by black singer Bessie Lee at Association Hall, Brooklyn in 1895. In all a very interesting archive, the possible subject for a book, or at least a thesis.