A brief history of the Negro League:

African Americans first began to play baseball in the late 1800s on military teams, college teams, and company teams, eventually finding their way to the established professional baseball teams of white players. However, racism and “Jim Crow” laws would force African Americans from these teams by 1900, with black players left to form their own teams.

In 1920, an organized league structure was formed under the guidance of Andrew “Rube” Foster, a former player, manager, and owner for the Chicago American Giants. In a meeting held at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, Mo., Foster and several other Midwestern team owners joined to form the Negro National League. Soon, rival leagues formed in Eastern and Southern states, which brought black baseball to major urban centers and to rural countrysides in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. The Leagues maintained a high level of professional skill and inspired economic development in many black communities.

Missing is much of the green liner paper to the box interior as well as the lower portion of the exterior brass latch. Additionally, the cabin lid has detached from the base although all aspects of the brass hinges appear to remain intact. Otherwise, this rarely found Black Americana Log Cabin Cigar Box is in marvelous condition, and the fabulous color litho adds to this piece’s value!!!

The log cabin measures 8 inches long x 5 inches deep x 5.5 inches high.

The wonderful litho which served to advertise the cigars feature a jolly black family singing and dancing as they all – with the exception of the youngest child – enjoy a cigar! In the lower right corner of the litho “Neuman Publishers NY” is partially obscured; in the lower right corner the words “Trade Mark Frey Bros NY”.

The AYER'S Cathartic Pills card is copyrighted 1883 in the lower right front corner by the J.C. Ayer Company Company, Lowell, Massachusetts. This card is brilliantly colored with a phenomenal graphic of the Black "Country Doctor" holding a small child who clutches an Ayer's Pills advertisement in her hand. The reverse side carries a testimony to the wonder of the multitude of curative properties of Ayer's Pills. The card measures 2 5/8 inches x 4 3/4 inches.

The J.P. Coat's Company card is not copyrighted but is at the latest, a circa 1890's card, and features a smiling African-American boy seated on a spool of Coat's thread tickling a bright yellow shining sun. The card measures 3 inches x 4.50 inches. The reverse side is an advertisement for J.P. Coat's Fast Black Spool Cotton thread.

The Clarke's Spool Cotton Thread advertising card measures 2.75 inches x 4 3/8 inches and features an African-American boy beating a drum which advertises Clarke's MILE-END Spool Cotton. The litho is marked on back "Donaldson Bros, Five Points, New York". The reverse side further advertises Clarke's Thread.

The fourth card is another J.P. Coat's Thread card depicting a humorous scene of an African-American couple attempting to move a very stubborn mule. The card measures 3 inches x 4.75 inches. It is copyrighted on the reverse 1881 by Auchincloss & Brothers, New York. The reverse side advertises the myriad of J.P. Coat's products.

The fifth card is another Clark's Mile-End Spool Cotton advertisement that features a humorous lithograph of a well-dressed African-American man being tripped by a young Caucasian boy holding Clark's super-strong thread, and measures 2.75 inches x 4.50 inches. The reverse side is a continuation of testimony and advertisement for the product.

All five trade cards are in very fine condition with nice color and some very subtle evidence of age staining as seen in photos. The cards have no rips, bends, or fading.

These seldom-found trade cards would look fabulous framed as a group!

Poster reads further: "Benefit- Pals Bible Club-Elm Street Baptist Church". "Directed by Churchill Traylor". Features a very sweet Black Minstrel caricature graphic! It is believed that this event took place in the Petersburg, Virginia area.

Measuring 6.75 inches wide x 8 inches long, the book is illustrated in both black silhouette and colored, line drawings. 16 pages long. Great condition-- tight binding, no tips or missing pages, clean. Cloth-bound hard covers.

This highly-researched, scholarly text spans 823 pages as it dissects the African-American slave experience and the society their forced labor sustained.

Filled with excerpts from primary resource material, Professor Genovese, provides a stark and detailed look into colonial Southern society as seen through the eyes of he African-American slave. Please see photos for a complete view of text contents.

The book retains its original paper dust jacket which is slightly worn as shown in photos; however, the cloth-bound hard covers remain in excellent condition. The book is tightly bound and in fine condition with no ripped or missing pages. There are pencil markings and underlinings scattered here and there throughout the text, no doubt put there by a diligent student. A hefty text measuring 9.50 inches long x 6.50 inches wide x 2 inches thick!

The statuette is constructed of lucite and is placed on a painted wood base. The piece is very nicely hand-painted and detailed. It depicts Ms. Baker in her famous banana skin skirt, wearing large loop earrings and holding her long, slender, silver cigarette holder. Her anatomical assets are duly accented in aluminum. The base is constructed utilizing the Art Deco design styling of the 1930's--the decade in which Ms. Baker first acquired her fame. The card holder, itself, is also aluminum.

Condition is mint with just the teeniest of surface scratches here and there apparent only when the piece is held to the light. Some slight pitting to the aluminum card holder edges.

Dated on one page "November 28, 1932, at Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada," this school composition book is completely filled with very neatly executed lessons in all subject areas- algebra, geometry, literature, vocabulary, French, English, History, geography and science.