Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -

Sale 2708 - Lot 213

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(WORLD WAR TWO.) E. Simms Campbell. Salute to Negro Troops . . . Pageant on the Negro's Contribution to America. Silk screen poster, 14½ x 11¾ inches to sight on heavy board, matted with additional 5¾ x 12¾-inch text panel; laid into period mat and laid down on foam board, mat chipped on bottom edge, dampstaining, foxing, several small abrasions. Not examined out of mat. Jersey City, NJ, 17 May 1942
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Additional Details

The "Salute to Negro Troops" patriotic revue was launched at the Cosmopolitan Opera House on 11 January 1942, not long after Pearl Harbor. It was put together by the Council on Negro Culture, and emphasized the important role of Black troops in the American Revolution. The show was reprised at the Apollo Theatre for a run in March, and then went on a U.S.O. tour in May. The Michigan Chronicle of 2 May 1942 noted that "E. Simms Campbell, the great cartoonist and illustrator, contributed a large poster in full color with Crispus Attucks . . . as the principal figure."

This performance was held at Lincoln High School in Jersey City, NJ, was presented by Bethlehem Lodge, and was staged for the "benefit of recreation programs for servicemen."

Elmer Simms Campbell (1907-1971) was perhaps the most prominent African-American illustrator and cartoonist from the 1930s through the 1960s. His cartoon "Cuties" was widely syndicated, and he drew the mascot for Esquire magazine. He may be best known today for his 1933 "Night-Club Map of Harlem"; his original art for that project hammered for $80,000 at Swann in 2016. We trace no other examples of this Campbell work in OCLC or elsewhere.

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