578
●
(RELIGION.) [TANNER,
BENJAMIN TUCKER.]
An uniden-
tified, seated portrait of what is
almost certainly the noted minister,
author-editor Benjamin T. Tanner.
Quarter plate, large cased tintype, show-
ing the subject, reading a newspaper; his
Dalmatian dog at his side; some slight
rippling to the surface apparent when
viewed at an angle.
Np, circa 1870’s
[800/1,200]
Benjamin Tucker Tanner (1835-1923) was
one of twelve children born to free black par-
ents from Pittsburgh. He attended Avery
College, Western Theological Seminary, and
Wilberforce where he was made a Doctor of
Divinity. In 1862 he took over the 15th
Street AME Church in Washington, D.C.
and following the war, established the nation’s
first school for freedmen located in the U. S.
Navy Yard in Washington. In 1868 Tanner
was elected Secretary of the AME General Conference and named editor of its publication, The
Christian Recorder, which soon became the largest black-owned periodical in the nation. In 1884
Turner became the editor of a new AME newspaper, AME Church Review. Four years later he was
elected a bishop of the AME Church. Tanner wrote a number of books including An Apology for
African Methodism (1867) which was highly regarded among contemporary American scholars of reli-
gion, and Outline and Government of the A.ME. Church (1883). For an image of Turner, see the
engraving from a photograph on page 121 of Garland Penn’s “The Afro American Press and its edi-
tors.”
579
●
(RELIGION.)
Group of forty-two items relative to the black church:
male and female ministers’ photographic cards, gospel singing and playing
groups, programs, posters, pastor’s certificate, original photographs, a copy of
Julia Foote’s “Brand Plucked from the Fire (1881) etc.
Various sizes, one card with a
chip; condition generally good.
MUST BE SEEN
.
Vp, circa 1920’s to 194
[1,000/1,500]
A mixed lot of scarce evangelical church material. Includes: Rare broadsides, posters, programs and a
number of early photographic cards for evangelical ministers of both sexes, with their programs, etc..
Most are from the South.
Also included are cards for
performing gospel groups
like the Cleveland Colored
Quintet, The Down Home
Quartette from Mexico,
Missour i, the Tr iple
Tonguing Trumpet Trio,
and the Eveready Gospel
Singers. In addition, there
are two Autograph Letters
Signed from Reverend
Nelson Jordan of Farmville
Virginia with his photo-
graph,dated 1909 and 1910.
