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(JOHN WESLEY CROMWELL.) Group of 6 books from the personal library of the important 19th-century scholar and activist. 6 volumes, all 8vo or 12mo in publisher's cloth bindings, various conditions as described below; all inscribed by or to John Wesley Cromwell. Various places, 1857-1913
These books are all inscribed by or to John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927), who had been freed from slavery as a young boy in 1851, graduated in 1864 from the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, and went on to a long and distinguished career as a journalist, editor, historian, and activist.
John Gihon. "Geary and Kansas." 348 pages. 12mo, publisher's cloth, moderate wear; moderate toning and minor foxing. A book on the abolitionist ferment in Kansas, bearing a gift inscription from just after the Civil War by the Rev. Jeremiah R.V. Thomas (circa 1835-after 1880), a significant African Methodist Episcopalian minister in the years following the Civil War, in Portsmouth and later in Baltimore and New Orleans: "J. Wesley Cromwell, presented by Rev. J.R.V. Thomas, Portsmouth, Va., June 8, 1865." Philadelphia, 1857.
Howard Carroll. "Twelve Americans: Their Lives and Times." 12 portrait plates including Frederick Douglass, most with titles on verso. xii, [2], 473, 6 pages including publisher's ads. 12mo, publisher's cloth, moderate wear, rebacked with most of original backstrip laid down; moderate wear to endpapers, otherwise minimal wear to contents. A collection of short biographies of Frederick Douglass and eleven others, inscribed in Cromwell's hand "A present from Frederick Douglass to J.W. Cromwell" on front free endpaper. John Wesley Cromwell founded the Bethel Literary and Historical Association in 1881 to serve Washington's small but growing Black intelligentsia, where he came to know Douglass. New York, 1883.
George Washington Williams. "History of the Negro Race in America." [2], xix, [1], 481, xiii, [1], 611 pages. 2 volumes in one. Thick 8vo, publisher's gilt cloth, rebacked with part of original backstrip laid down, moderate wear and staining; moderate dampstaining and wear, several tape repairs, one leaf defective with slight loss; signed twice "J.W. Cromwell" and also "Adelaide Cromwell Hill" on title page, with numerous marginal notes in Cromwell's hand. Later edition of the first general history of African Americans. Some of Cromwell's marginal notes are substantial, some correct factual errors, and at least one is personal: when Williams references the Institute for Colored Youth on page II:176, Cromwell writes "My alma mater." New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons / Knickerbocker Press, 1885.
John Sarbah. "Fanti Customary Laws." xxiii, [1], 295 pages. 8vo, publisher's gilt cloth, moderate wear, chipping and repairs to backstrip; hinge split after page 64, minimal wear to contents. Gift inscription from Pan-Africanist historian John Edward Bruce (1856-1924), "John W. Cromwell Esq. from his friend Jno. E. Bruce, Aug 25 1897." Cromwell's granddaughter later signed "Adelaide C. Hill." London: William Clowes and Sons, 1897.
William A. Sinclair. "The Aftermath of Slavery: A Study of the Condition and Environment of the American Negro." xiii, 358, [12] pages including publisher's ads. 8vo, publisher's cloth, backstrip ends chipped, otherwise minor wear; minimal wear to contents, occasional marginal check marks in pencil, rear hinge split; uncut, with a few leaves unopened. Inscribed by the author on front pastedown "To J.W. Cromwell, compliments, Wm. A. Sinclair." Both men were important Black intellectuals who shared a background in slavery, making this an interesting association copy. Boston, 1905.
Casely Hayford. "The Truth about the West African Land Question." [8], 203, [11] including publisher's ads. 8vo, publisher's gilt cloth, minimal wear; minimal wear to contents, a few pencil notes. Another gift inscription by John Edward Bruce, "To my good friend John Wesley Cromwell, 'Old Reliable,' with best wishes, John E. Bruce 'Grit', Yonkers, N.Y., 11/8/13." London: C.M. Phillips, 1913.
Provenance: John Wesley Cromwell (1846-1927); his daughter Otelia Cromwell (1874-1972), a noted literary scholar; and his granddaughter Adelaide M. Cromwell (1919-2019), an important sociologist.
