?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(BUSINESS.) GAINES FUNERAL HOME. Funeral Record Book of the Gaines Funeral Home, in "The American Funeral Record, a Ready Reference Day-Book for Undertakers." Partially-printed, accomplished by hand. Large ledger, (14-3/4 inches tall) [32], 1-300 pages, Original leather-grained cloth-backed cloth-e boards, in ledger-style with tabs. [Pittsburgh, 1929-1934]
a record book from the longest operating black business in western pennsylvania. A very detailed ledger covering an almost five year period, providing the records and costs of funerals for African Americans in the East End Neighborhood of Pittburgh from 1929-1934. The Gaines Funeral Home was established in 1919, in the historically African American Homewood section of Pittsburgh. In 1923, the business moved to 220 Auburn Street in Pittsburgh's East End neighborhood. This building was the former Mount Ararat Baptist Church, so the funeral home gained the sobriquet "the Funeral Church." There are 300 funerals recorded in the present ledger; they are quite detailed and can provide a potential wealth of genealogical information. The entries include the names of the deceased, dates of birth, death funeral service, parents names, occupation, name of attending physician, clergymen, and place of interment. In addition, the makes and models of the cars involved in the funeral are provided as well as the type of casket etc. Some entries are quite intriguing: Charles William Wells Frazier for example lists his place of birth as African and occupation "Herb Specialist."
