May 07, 2020 - Sale 2534

Sale 2534 - Lot 401

Price Realized: $ 975
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(WOMEN'S HISTORY.) Papers of Lenon Hoyte, the "Doll Lady of Harlem." 256 items (0.3 linear feet) in one box; condition generally strong. New York, 1954-1990 and undated
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Additional Details

Lenon Hoyte (1905-1999) was a lifelong resident of Harlem who gained local fame as a doll collector. She eventually opened her home on Hamilton Terrace (known as "Harlem's loveliest street") for private tours as Aunt Len's Doll and Toy Museum. The collection spanned dolls of all time periods and ethnicities, but with a particular focus on African-Americans, as reflected in her 1972 poem "A Message from a Black Doll." Offered here is an archive of her personal papers. It includes 147 photographs, most of them professionally shot 8x10-inch prints. Included are several by Harlem photographers Alvin J. Burley (9), Oscar Mallory (3) and Lloyd Yearwood (9), as well as one by LeRoy Henderson of Brooklyn. Three uncredited photographs seem to show a visit by Josephine Baker in full stage regalia circa the 1950s. Most of the images show Hoyte with her gloriously overstuffed museum collection.
In addition to the photographs, this lot includes her museum's promotional brochures and press releases, a flier for a 1980 "Roller Disco with the Dolls on the Terrace" event, several pages from a 1955 scrapbook, and a clippings file. A file of 31 letters includes an original Letter Signed from longtime Congressman Charles Rangel to "Aunt Len" offering his support, 5 March 1979. See also lot 363.