Early Gullah Sweetgrass Basket Low Country African-American Folk Art Material Culture

One of the most culturally rich areas of the country is the low coastal area of South Carolina, where descendants of slaves still retain a bit of their roots and skills. One tradition surviving is the sweetgrass baskets still being made by African-American craftpersons who sell their wares along the roads (and increasingly in Charleston shops and boutiques.) It is unusual to find an early sweetgrass basket these days, as collectors prize old examples to contrast with their newer pieces.  Note the wear and patina of the lid, the base and the inside of the basket.  This piece could date to the 1930's or earlier.  When found, the basket was filled with spools of thread, so it was used as a sewing basket.
Collection Jim Linderman

African-American Folk Art Sculpture Joe Louis c. 1940 Sewer Tile Clay

Joe Louis, the Brown Bomber folk art sculpture made of clay. Joe was active in the late 1930's to the late 1940's.  Born in Alabama and moved to Detroit after being visited by a gang of the Klan. Let's not let that happen again.  Best known for his professional record, but also for standing up for civil rights all his life.  In 1934, Louis won his first professional title (for which he earned $59.00) and went on to win all 12 of his fights in 1934, ten by knockouts.
THANKS TO NATALIE CURLEY ANTIQUES

Joe Lewis clay sculpture Circa 1940  Collection Jim Linderman

African American Hero of Sport Babs Wingo the Wrestler

The star here is Babs Wingo.  I am not sure if women wrestlers ever really took off, not being a fan of the sport today.  Mostly grown men in superhero costumes playing to an audience with limited education.  But I would have gone to see Babs.

Babs Wingo was no better at faking a move than the male performers, but she was out there with a few of her sisters.  What a phenom.  Her wrestling career was in the early 1950s.  At time when African-Americans were segregated and abused, Babs was traveling on the road and climbing into the ring.  One article from the time calls her and her tag team "grunters" but all the reviews were great.  "Girls please crowd at wrestling show with hold galore" reads one. What a show!

Babs apparently weighed in at 150 pounds.  Only 5' 3" and just 21 at the time.  She also painted.  I'd love to see some of her paintings.  Coming from New Orleans, she would possibly have seen painters lining Jackson Square with work for sale.

Did Babs wrestle in heels?  Hmm.

Life is good with diversity, even in the ring.  Babs blazed trails.
Here is a time capsule film.  It's great

Detail from a recently discovered wrestling poster c. 1950 Collection Jim Linderman 

Antique Folk Art Drawing of an African-American Man c.1888 Georgia Origin Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Drawing African-American Man, Georgia.  Dated 1888 Drawn on an envelope. Collection Jim Linderman
See also the book from Blurb ECCENTRIC FOLK ART DRAWINGS by Jim Linderman available in paperback or affordable instant ebook from Blurb.

19th Century Cryptic Symbols incised on a Brick. African-American?

19th Century Cryptic Symbols incised on a Brick.  African-American?  
Collection Jim Linderman

African-American Folk Art Sculpture Yard Art collection Jim Linderman

The preservation, provenance and acquisition of this outdoor African-American folk art sculpture in concrete has an interesting story.  I saw the piece in situ, along with other garden sculptures by the same hand, some 30 years ago.  I was too tired to stop, but noted the location for a subsequent trip.  I went back two weeks later and the entire environment was gone.  Several weeks ago, it turned up again being offered by a New York dealer.  It turns out the pair had been, at some time, added to the collection of a prominent New Jersey collector, sold at auction and then finally sold to me.  Full circle.  I'll give them a good home for some time.  Great things thought lost often come around again.  

Large handmade folk art garden sculpture (pair) Collection Jim Linderman

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First African-American Armed Cross Dressers with a Guitar Pose for the Camera collection Jim Linderman

First African-American Armed Cross Dressers Pose for the Camera?
Even though I suspect the gun, holster and guitar are studio props, you have to GIVE props to this African-American couple who had the nerve to exchange clothes for the photo.  It is a man and a woman, as the gentleman in drag has an Adam's apple.  The RPPC dates from 1910 to 1930.  If they are not using props, this could have been quite a team, musical or criminal.  A rare, tough image with lots of cultural resonance today.  The first cross dressing African-American photograph, even if done for the photographer only?

Real Photo Postcard with Azo Back circa 1910 - 1930  Unknown location and photographer.  Note on reverse  Collection Jim Linderman

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Meet the Pacers Black Motorcycle Club Polaroid Photographs

Meet the Pacers  Black Motorcycle Club Polaroid Photographs 
No Date (circa 1970?) Collection Jim Linderman

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Antique Folk Art African-American Puppet Doll Head Sculpture

Antique Folk Art African-American Puppet Doll Head Sculpture  Collection Jim Linderman

19th Century Wooden Carved Folk Art African-American Man

Folk Art Carved Wooden Man.  Pine, likely southern American, circa 1860-1880  21"  Doll.  Collection Jim Linderman

Vintage V African-American Weaves Wigs and Hair from Howard's of Harlem

Some SERIOUS Black wigs from just after World War Two.  And since hair is a serious subject for most African-American women, I am not going to even attempt much an essay here.  I do remember walking through the book fair on 125th street (where these images came from fifty years earlier) and it seemed every publisher, large or small, had a title devoted to women of color and their hair, wigs, weaves, hats and the culture around it.

There is also a serious amount of weaves in here, including  "crispy hair transformations and biscuit side puffs"  along with a considerable group of the necessary tools.  Beautiful essentials for already beautiful women.

My only other observations are the "V" for victory style,  which makes sense after the war,  and that from what I can tell "Howard's of 125th Street" was in business well into the long-overdue "Black is Beautiful" era of the late 1960s and beyond. 

The splendid artist, alas, is unidentified in the catalog, which is a whopping 44 pages. At one time Howard's owned a copyright on the phrase "Re-birth of Charm" though I don't think the women who received this catalog in the mail ever lost theirs.

Rebirth of Charm spring 1946 Catalog  Coiffures Created by Howard's New York City  44 page Pamphlet 5" x 7" Collection Jim Linderman 

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Early Blues R&B Quartet Performs on the Street Photograph collection Jim Linderman

Original Photograph Collection Jim Linderman

Original Photograph Collection Jim Linderman

I was fortunate to find another early blues and/or R&B group performing on the street.  As before, any help out there?  Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin and String  Bass played with a bow.  No date, but I am guessing the 1940s?  Could be earlier, could be later.  Share it around folks...definitive answer wins a prize!

African-American Musicians on  the Street Performing, Anonymous.  Collection Jim Linderman

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Harlem History and Tan Pin Ups Teena, Vera and Dolores

One of the earliest significant ads I can find in a mass market periodical offering nude photographs of African-American women.

(Or even women of color...)

From a 1956 issue of Frolic Magazine.  Scarce today, Frolic was printed on cheap pulp but the covers were bright and vibrant to stand out on the top shelf of shops.  In 1956 the magazine was published every two months with Luke Bailey as editor.  Harlem was about 100 blocks north of the editorial offices.

The photo sets offered here were common in the day, but to cater to a race market was not.  Mar-Mays photos MAY be yet another "branch" of the enormous "Marr" or "Marno" distributor of countless figure study digests documented as well as can be in the book 
PROTO-PORN: The Art Figure Study Scam of the 1950s.

The ad here ran four years after African-American photographer Cass Carr was arrested for organizing nude camera shots which used ethnic models...and Bettie Page.  Carr was a pioneer of sorts and lived in Harlem.  His studio was shut down by police as reported in Jet Magazine in 1952.  It is likely the photographs above came from informal (or even illegal) amateur camera club models such as those used by Carr.

Ads from Frolic Magazine 1956  Text by Jim Linderman

Rhythm and Blues come Rock and Roll 1965 photograph collection Jim Linderman

For a century and then some, photographers and camera makers have lauded the ability to "capture movement" whatever that means.  To stop it?  To Freeze the action?  At least this one is perfectly framed. 

I just wish I was there, or that the photographer had captured the music as well.

Anonymous Snapshot, Untitled (1965)  Collection Jim Linderman  

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Original Mug Shot Photograph New York City Crime 1950s collection Jim Linderman

A striking original mug shot photograph circa 1950 from New York City

Mug Shot circa 1950 8 x 10 Collection Jim Linderman
(Tip of the Hat to Monica)

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The Animated Chocolate Eclair and World's Smallest Perfect Woman Princess Wee Wee RPPC

A previously "unposted" real photo postcard of Princess Wee-Wee, A.K.A. Princess Weenie Wee, Winnie Wee, The Animated Chocolate Eclair, The World's Smallest Perfect Woman and Harriet Elizabeth Williams. Wee Wee was weaned in Bryn Mawr, PA, born 1892. Her "Linked-in" profile would today include stints at Dreamland Circus Sideshow 1908-1917 and Barnum and Bailey, dates unknown. She also apparently toured on shows with Count Basie, Pine Top Smith and other prominent "Negro Vaudeville" routes. She appeared in one film, "The Music Goes Round" in 1936 according to one source. I haven't seen the film.

Not surprisingly, there are dozens of photographs of Ms. Wee Wee, nearly all with her standing next to a prop (either a person or a piece of furniture) which puts her wee-weeness into perspective. Whether this chair is normal-sized is unknown. There are numerous claims made as to her height and weight. I think wee suffices.


Real Photo Postcard circa 1910 Collection Jim Linderman

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Nightclub Photography Club DeLisa Hard-boiled Nostalgia Evidence Blackmail and Dames with a Camera

Club DeLisa in Chicago's Bronzeville was THE place for African-American floor shows and Jazz during the 1950s. It was run by four brothers and presented the finest in African-American entertainment (all the while allowing gambling in the basement.) From Albert Ammons to Joe Williams. "The Harlem of Chicago"


Like to be your own boss? Consider the Nightclub photographer. One of the few photography genres seemingly without scholarship or museum shows (If you know of one, let me know.) They were and are often women (Noted photojournalist Ruth Orkin started as one, so did a female character in Dick Tracy) Weegee also worked the clubs.


I could probably compile a long list of photographers who started out with a speed-graphic and a tip tray, but I'll leave it up to a doctoral student needing a project.


Big operators in famous clubs printed their own cardboard frames to sleeve the photos. One could go late...folks are more likely to spend the money for a portrait after a few drinks. They appear in hard-boiled novels all the time...being in the club affords them opportunities for both evidence and blackmail. Many a plot turns on the appearance of a "surprise" photograph taken by a pretty dame with a shutter. Nightclub photographers also have provided many historical images of performers as they often had the only camera in the club.


As popular today as it was in the 1950's, I am not sure how long it will last. Whether the cellphone camera will kill the nightclub photographer is questionable...there is glamour missing in a digital picture, and If I were a young photographer starting out today, I would get a big camera with a collapsible bellows and carry it around clubs.


Anonymous Original Nightclub Photo Club DeLisa circa 1950 with original sleeve
Collection Jim Linderman

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House of Blue Lights Juke Joint

The once splendid "House of Blue Lights" nightclub outside of Athens, Georgia circa 1993. Seemingly a textbook example of African-American Architectural Iconography, there was nary a right angle to the place, and a good deal of it was intentional rather than from "settling." We knew the approximate location, but stopped at a fire station for directions, the fireman told us we were looking for "the old whorehouse" and directed us straight there. I do not know who built it, who owned it, who operated it or who shut it down, but I would have waited in line to hear the Rhythm and Blues when it opened, and I doubt you would have found a finer Juke Joint. Anyone with additional information is welcome to provide it. The last picture is your intrepid reporter trying to figure out why there are hundreds of nails pounded into the remarkable door in back.

House of Blue Lights Athens Georgia c. 1993 Original 35mm Photographs Collection Jim Linderman