Mar 28, 2019 - Sale 2503

Sale 2503 - Lot 284

Price Realized: $ 1,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
(HISTORY.) "Pictures of Distinguished Negroes" catalogue issued by the National Memorial Book Store. 4 pages, 12 x 9 inches, on one folding sheet; folds, minimal wear. New York, circa 1955
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Additional Details

Lewis Michaux's National Memorial Bookstore was a center of Harlem's intellectual life from the 1930s through the 1970s. This leaflet lists engraved portraits of 160 prominent African American historical figures whose portraits Michaux offered for sale, from Phillis Wheatley to Paul Robeson, plus small busts of Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass, all offered for one dollar each. 4 of the portraits are illustrated on the front page, which also solicits "Agents wanted to sell history books, pictures and busts of distinguished colored people." This catalogue probably dates from the 1950s. The entry for "General B.O. Davis" appears to be added later, and he was first appointed general in 1954; Martin Luther King and his generation of civil rights leaders had not yet reached national prominence.