Mar 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2697 -
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Sale 2697 - Lot 190

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(ENTERTAINMENT--DANCE.) Family photo album including two Harlem dancers: Henri Wessels and his mother Lillian Fairley. 23 photographs, most of them about 10 x 8 inches; taped or sleeved into a later ring binder with family member's captions below, some crudely cropped or with various wear. Various places, circa 1920s-1960s
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Additional Details

Henry or Henri Wessels (1907-1967) was a dancer in numerous Cotton Club productions and toured internationally in the 1920s and 1930s. He was described in his stepfather's 1930 obituary as "the eccentric dancer." The last public mention we have found of him was in the Army during World War Two, when he enlisted as a Private First Class "dance specialist" and performed in the military revue "Harlem Hits the Tropics" in Hawaii. He is perhaps best remembered today for a ghostly nude photograph taken of him by George Platt Lynes in 1933; Swann's photography department sold a copy in 2023.

His mother Lillian "Lily" Fairley (1891-) was an actress and dancer who was active in New York's Black theater scene from at least 1909 to 1929, including a role in Wallace Thurman's "Harlem" in 1929. We suspect Fairley was a stage name, but have been unable to deduce her born surname. She was married twice. She married Henry Wessells in 1907, and then the noted Black theatrical producer and songwriter Henry Sterling Creamer in 1919. She and her son Henri both participated in a dance recital for the Ethiopian Art Theatre School per the New York Age, 28 June 1924.

This album contains 3 photographs of Henri Wessels. Two by H. Tarr of New York show him in costume with his dancing partner Annie. The other is an artistic nude shot of Henri from behind; it is crudely cropped and only a portion of the London photographer's stamp remains; it has a diagonal crease and partial separation.

8 of the photographs are professional promotional shots of Lily Fairley circa the 1920s. Photographers include James Hargis Connelly of Chicago and Gushiniere of New York.

The album was compiled by a cousin of Lillian Fairley Creamer: Cyril Smith Hunt (1919-2006), a New York City policewoman. Her background is discussed in the Baltimore Afro-American of 13 August 1960. The album contains other members of her immediate family, including her grandmother Henrietta Hicks Branche (1871-after 1940). Lillian is listed in the 1940 census with her aunt Rachel Woodson Branche (1876-1948), so the Branche family was apparently their connection.

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