Page 191 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

347 ● GARVEY, MARCUS. Group of documents and stock certificates from a
Jamaican-American family. Two Black Star Line stock certificates in fine condition,
four Inter=Colonial Steamship & Trading Co stock certificates, the latter repaired with
archival paper; official
Jamaican emigration doc-
uments, and other papers
including another stock
certificate for the
Motorist Spring Wheel
Corporation. CONDITION
VARIES, SHOULD BE SEEN.
Kingston, Jamaica and
New York, 1918-1950’s
[1,500/2,500]
Small archive relating to
Henry Williams and his
wife Leah, Jamaican citi-
zens. The Williams had
come to the United States
but were forced to leave their
daughter Imogene in Jamaica
until they were financially
able to have her come.
Henry and Leah apparently did well and a Labor Department document lists Henry as a “gold oper-
ator.” In 1918 they sent for their daughter and she came to the States with her guardian. The
Williams were apparently prosperous and there are two stock certificates for Marcus Garvey’s Black
Star Line, signed by Orlando Thompson. Additionally there are four more certificates for a possibly
related company. The “Inter=Colonial Steamship & Trading Co., is cited among the J.R. Ralph
Casimir papers at the Schomburg Center, as related to the U.N.I A. There is a single stock certificate
for thr Motorist Spring Wheel Corporation as well.
348 ● GARVEY, MARCUS. GARVEY, AMY ASHWOOD. Group of 60 pho-
tographs taken in Africa in the 1940’s, and 50’s belonging to Marcus Garvey’s
first wife, many with notations on the reverse. CONDITION VARIES, VARIOUS SIZES,
SHOULD BE SEEN. VP IN AFRICA, 1940’S [600/800]
Amy Ashwood Garvey (1897-1969) feminist and pan-Africanist, was Marcus Garvey’s first
wife and in 1914 co-founded the U.N.I A with him in Jamaica. However in New York,
months after their marriage in 1919, the couple broke up because Garvey was having an affair
with Amy Jacques, the first Amy’s bridesmaid. There was a very nasty separation, lawsuit etc.
and Amy Ashwood moved to London, where for years she worked as a pan-Africanist and
women’s rights advocate. In 1946 she moved to Africa where she remained for some years, trav-
eling through Nigeria and Ghana, continuing her work for women’s rights. In Liberia she
began a relationship with William Tubman, the country’s president. This group of photographs
shows Garvey and various people she knew, many of them notables. A number of the pho-
tographs bear inscriptions on the reverse. One photograph shows a man being hung from a tree
in what appears to be a lynching. Amy Ashwood Garvey to her dying day maintained that she
was the only true wife of Marcus Garvey.
[SEE ILLUSTRATION OVERLEAF]