?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
ELABORATE ELKS PARAPHERNALIA (FRATERNAL.) Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World. Group of material relative to Laura O. B. Frazier, "Past Grand Daughter Ruler and Grand Organizer of the Purple Cross Nurses of the African American Chapter of the "Elks" from Easton, Pennsylvania. Consisting of: an elaborate medal of purple silk with a gold-plated enameled badge, a large ceremonial velvet "collar" of gold and enameled stars and circles, at the end of which is a series of gold-plated bars with her name gold star within an amethyst Bohemian glass studded circlet; and a ceremonial apron; with several manuals from the Order (various dates) and a large (8-1/2 x 6-1/2 inch) silver print photo of an unidentified male member of the Elks in full regalia. should be seen. Easton, Pennsylvania, circa 1940's
Having been rejected by the white membership of the American Elks, Arthur James Riggs, a Pullman Porter and Benjamin Franklin Howard, an African American attorney set out to form their own lodge. In so doing they discovered that the white brothers of the Elks, who had rejected them had never bothered to copyright their name, ritual or any of their paraphernalia! And thus the IBPOEW were granted a copyright as an organization on September 28, 1898 in Cincinnati, Ohio. They had added "of the World" to their name and became the first Elks Ritual copyrighted in the United States, with Cincinnati's "Alpha Lodge No.1. The following year, the first charter and articles of incorporation were granted. There were attempts at law-suits, but the IBPOEW prevailed. Since that time, the IBPOEW has grown to be the largest black fraternal organization in the world with a membership of close to 500,000 with lodges in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
