Feb 25, 2010 - Sale 2204

Sale 2204 - Lot 183

Price Realized: $ 720
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(BUSINESS.) WALKER, MADAME C.J. The Madam C.J. Walker Pilgrims to the Holy Land. Silver print photograph, 6x9 inches, with information regarding the photograph on the reverse; the photo is indistinctly signed in the lower right corner. [New York City, circa 1925]

Additional Details

In 1924, the Madam C.J. Walker Company conducted a "Trip to the Holy Land Contest." The idea was to have the C.J. Walker clients pick their "favorite minister" from a list of names that was provided. One had to mail in part of a C.J. Walker product label or box-top with the minister's name, each "coupon" being worth a hundred points. The contest was advertised in magazines such as Crisis. The winners, as announced in the December issue were Reverend K.H. Burrus of Atlanta a free trip "plus $250.00," and free trips for Reverend Solomon S. Jones of Muskogee, Oklahoma, and Reverends J.O. Haithcox of Cincinnati, and M.J. Key of Washington, D.C. Their names and a short note "See story 'Color' " appear on the reverse of this photograph. Swann auctioned 5-1/2 hours of film, shot by reverend Jones in our last sale. The film footage included a substantial portion Jones shot in the Holy Land.