Sale 2503 - Printed & Manuscript African Americana, March 28, 2019

403 404 403 c   (WOMEN.) Pair of photographs and a letter by Mollie Moon. Autograph Letter Signed “Mollie” to “darling baby,” 3 pages on 3 sheets, 11 x 8 1 / 2 inches, photographs each about 10 x 7 inches; minimal wear. [New York], 1945-60 [400/600] Mollie Moon (1912-1990) was the founder and long-time president of the National Urban League Guild, and a leading New York socialite; her husband was civil rights activist Henry Lee Moon. The letter offers gossip on Harlem society toward the end of World War Two, such as an update on a pioneering African American journalist: “Roi Ottley going to Soviet Russia for C.B.S., says the columnist Dorothy Whyte has been awfully sweet by extending several dinner invitations.” She also references her husband’s cousin, the author Chester Himes, who came to New York to finish his best-known book “If He Hollers” at her home at 940 St. Nicholas Avenue. “Our crazy cousins were thrown out of their room as the landlady refused to let cousin Chester remain there a day longer, so they’re at 940 until Jean locates a suitable room.” Himes later based his novel “Pinktoes” on the Moons and their high-flying social circle (see Himes’s letter in the book “Dear Chester, Dear John,” page 22). One of the photographs, with Cecil Layne’s inked stamp, shows Moon with an unidentified man and Josephine Baker. Other photographs from this session at the Detroit Public Library identify the scene at the Beaux Arts Ball at the Hotel Roosevelt in New York, 12 February 1960. The other photo is a formal portrait of Moon by Carl Van Vechten, 11 December 1956. 404 c   (WOMEN.) Group of photographs of African-American nurses and clients of the American Red Cross. 14 photographs, 8 x 10 inches, including one duplicate; most with inked stamps and mimeographed caption labels on verso, minor wear. Vp, 1947-48 and undated [500/750] The photographs come from around the country; most are official Red Cross press photos. Three show women working with veterans in Tuskegee, AL. One shot of nurses at a rest home in Galesburg, IL emphasizes that “fifteen Negro women are active members of the chapter’s Grey Lady Corps.” with —a poster, “You Can Help . . . Through American Junior Red Cross.” 14 1 / 2 x 20 3 / 4 inches, undated.