Page 112 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

182 ● (ART.) EXHIBITS. Five exhibit Catalogues: Art of the American Negro.
Howard University Gallery, 1937 * Oil Paintings Watercolors and Prints by
Negro Artists, Howard University, 1939 * Survey Number One by James Amos
Porter. 1959 * Three Negro Artists, Horace Pippin, Jacob Lawrence Richmond
Barthe,1947 * New Vistas in American Art. Howard University, 1961. Illustrated,
various sizes, condition generally very good.SHOULD BE SEEN. 1937-1951 [300/400]
183 ● (AVIATION.) WELLS, IRVIN. “Irvin E. Wells Commercial Pilot”, inked
title below the image. Halftone from a photograph 11 x 81⁄2 inches, printed on heavy
cardstockINSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY WELLS NEXT TO HIS IMAGE: “TO MISS CHRYSTALLE
FROM IRVIN E WELLS.” NP, CIRCA 1930’S [700/1,000]
Irvin Wells was part of the “Negro Formation Flying Group” that performed at the Los
Angeles Labor Day Air Circus in 1931. Wells who had gotten his pilot’s certificate through
the Bessie Coleman Aero Club.
184 ● (BIOGRAPHY.) BRUCE, JOHN EDWARD, Compiler. Eminent Negro Men
and Women, in Europe and in the United States, . . . Volume I (all published.)
103 pages. Tall 8vo, later.
Yonkers, N.Y. [Gazette Press], 1910 [3,500/4,500]
first edition, inscribed by the author to t. thomas fortune esq., “with the
very best regards of his sincere friends, john e. bruce grit. yonkers, ny, april
8/10.” One could hardly imagine a better association copy between these two major african
american journalists. John E. Bruce (1856-1924) was born into slavery in Piscatoway,
Maryland. His father was sold to another master when Bruce was three. In 1860, his mother
and he marched along side Union soldiers to freedom in Washington. There she worked as a
domestic. In 1874 Bruce got a job in the Washington D.C. offices of the New York Times. In
1879, Bruce founded the weekly Argus, and in 1880 The Washington Grit, and in 1884,
The Sunday Item. Over the Years, Bruce wrote for more publications than space allows us to
list. Strangely, he published only two books, one of them the present title, the other a novelette,
The Awakening of Hezekiah Brown. For all of his accomplishment, John E. Bruce, later
known as Bruce Grit was largely self-educated. He was an early civil rights advocate and Pan-
Africanist, supporting the unity of all African descended peoples. He helped found the
American Negro Academy and it was Bruce who recommended Arthur A. Schomburg for
membership. T. Thomas Fortune was a fellow newspaperman, editor and co-owner of several
major African American periodicals: The New York Globe, The New York Freeman, and The
New York Age.
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