Grace Covenant Church, Chantilly, VA, Black History Month 2018
Passage of the Landmark 14th Amendment – President’s Veto is Overridden so Southern States Can Rejoin Union
Centennial Jubilee Singers of Harper’s Ferry
Ira Aldridge – Black Thespian Played to European Audiences
Bert Williams – Black Vaudevillian
Duke Ellington – Signed LP
Duke Ellington – Perhaps Era’s Greatest Composer and Bandleader with His Famous Orchestra
Louis Armstrong – Letter Written a Few Days Before His Passing
Paul Robeson – Epitome of a 20th Century Black Renaissance Man
Marian Anderson – Kept Offstage by Racial Discrimination
Josephine Baker – The “Black Venus”
Billie Holiday – Her 1939 Song “Strange Fruit” Protested Lynching
Sarah Vaughan – “The Divine One”
Charlie “Bird” Parker – Jazz Alto Sax Legend
The Outsider – Signed Oil Painting for First Paperback Edition of Richard Wright’s Novel
Dizzy Gillespie – With Trademark Bulging Cheeks and Bent Horn
Thelonious Monk – The High Priest of Bop
John Coltrane – Innovative Tenor and Soprano Saxophonist
John Coltrane’s Inscribed 1961 Tiffany 18K Gold Watch
Chuck Berry – Rock ‘n Roll Superstar
Aretha Louise Franklin – “The Queen of Soul”
Original Hand-Colored Map of Africa (c. 1640)
The Terrible “Middle Passage”
1667 Manhattan Land Transfer to a Free Black’s Family
Slave Mutiny on the Amistad
John Brown Invades Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia
Extraordinary Eyewitness Account of John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry
1849 Public Sale of Estate Slaves in Missouri
Cherokee Indian Sells His Black Slave
“A Slave Auction at the South” During the Civil War
Original Aetna Slave Insurance Policy (1859)
Slave Dealer’s Business Card (c. 1860)
Nat Turner Slave Rebellion in Virginia (1831)
Denmark Vesey Slave Insurrection in Charleston, SC (1822)
Charleston Slave Tag (c. 1851)
The Infamous Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850
Scarce Copy of Harriet Tubman Biography
The Rare First Autobiography (1845) of Frederick Douglass
Sojourner Truth (c. 1797-1883)
Diary of a Slave Overseer on the Hardscrabble Plantation, Louisiana (1859 – 1861)
Hardscrabble Plantation, Louisiana (1859 – 1861)
Reward Poster for a Runaway Slave
Confederate States of America $100 Note with Vignette of Slaves Hoeing in the Field
The New York Herald of Jan 3, 1863 Publishes Emancipation Proclamation
Original 1863 Currier & Ives Lithograph Commemorating President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
Raymond O. Wolfe, Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the UN, speaks at the United Nations Transatlantic Slave Trade exhibit marking 2012’s International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. He is standing by The Mitchell Collection’s original 1789 print of a slave ship’s hold containing Africans headed for America to be sold as slaves in various countries and islands.
Mark with Cameroon’s Minister of Culture and African permanent UN representatives at opening ceremonies for United Nation’s Transatlantic Slave Trade Exhibit, 2012.
United Nations Transatlantic Slave Trade Exhibition at the Visitors Center – The Mark E. Mitchell Collection was honored to be chosen as a major contributor of rare artifacts viewed by hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Washington, DC Temple Visitor Center Exhibit (partial view)
Exhibit, “From Slavery to the White House” Melville Gallery, South Street Seaport, New York City
At an event, actor Danny Glover gazes in awe at Mark’s original 1798 handwritten letter of Haitian leader Toussaint Louverture
Black Education in Colonial New York City
Slaves Unfitted For Education or Freedom!
First Journal for the Education of Freed Slaves
Primary School for Freedmen in Mississippi
Northern White Lady Volunteers to Teach Freed Slaves
John Willis Menard – First Elected Black Congressman
Howard University in 1869
Hiram Rhoads Revels – First African American Senator
F. L. Cardozo Proposes Two Promising Students for Howard University
Handwritten Letter on Senator Revels’ Official Stationary
Booker T. Washington – Promoted Economic Self-Sufficiency
Alonzo Jacob Ransier – Former SC Lt. Governor and Early Black Congressman
School for Training Black Automobile Mechanics
Blanche Kelso Bruce – First Black Senator to Serve a Full Term
Mrs. Booker T. Washington Offers a Teaching Position at Tuskegee Institute
Edward W. Brooke – The First Black Senator Elected Since Reconstruction
Carter Godwin Woodson – Advocate for Black History Awareness
Carl Stokes – First African American Mayor of a Major City
Negro History Week Trophy Cup
Barack Obama Elected President of the United States
Mary McLeod Bethune – Wartime Cabinet Adviser to FDR
The 54th Massachusetts Regiment’s Assault on Fort Wagner
Master/Slave Enlistment Agreement from the American Revolution
Revolutionary War Pay Document for an African American Soldier
General Andrew Jackson Calls for Blacks to Enlist in War of 1812
First Study of Black Participation in the American Revolution and War of 1812
Buffalo Soldier Discharged After Five Years Service
Buffalo Soldiers in the Southwest
Henry Ossian Flipper – Autobiography of First Black U.S. Military Academy Graduate
W. E. B. Dubois – Intellectual Pathfinder
Colonel Charles Young – First Black West Point Graduate to Achieve High Rank
1922 NAACP Anti-Lynching Poster
Black Cavalry in the Spanish-American War
Malcolm X Writes to Elijah Muhammad
World War I Recruitment Poster
The Assassination of Medgar Evers
Eugene Jacques Bullard – First African American Combat Pilot
Tuskegee Airman World War II Fundraising Poster
Historically Important Letter from Malcolm X to Author Alex Haley
Black GI’s – After Landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Writes Censored Note from Birmingham Jail
The Chicago Defender – Confronted Segregation in the Military
The Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
African American Pilot in Korea and Vietnam
Rosa Parks – Official Funeral Program
Black Participation in the Vietnam War
Professor Angela Davis – Black Panther Activist
Ku Klux Klan Attacks a Southern Black Family
Ku Klux Terrorists Captured in Mississippi
“The Negro Exodus – Scenes on the Wharves at Vicksburg”
The Exodus of 1879 – An Eyewitness Account
Jim Crow Cartoon Maligns African Americans
Booker T. Washington Protests Lynching
W. T. Ford – Black Dentist Accepts Black Patients Only
Lynching Not The Only Atrocity Committed by White Mobs
Future President FDR Writes About Building a Segregated Swimming Pool
The Scottsboro Case – Heywood Patterson Appeals His Death Sentence
Reconstruction Era (circa 1865-1877) – African Americans Vote for the First Time!
Blacks in the Majority of South Carolina Legislature
Freedmen in the South Discussing Politics
Republican Party Courts Black Voters in 1868
The 1869 National Colored Convention Discusses the Condition of America’s Blacks
1869 Sharecroppers’ Agreement
Former Slaves in Richmond Registering for the First Time in 1870
The Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company – Important Letter by Frederick Douglass
President Attempts to Save Reconstruction
Mark and Branford Marsalis
Mark at the African Diaspora Heritage Trail Conference in Bermuda
Mark on tenor saxophone with trumpeter Tommy Williams
Mark with actor Ben Vereen holding the original contract for what became “Roots”
Mark and Thelonious Monk, Jr.
Mark, at far right, listens to Rep. John R. Lewis (D-GA), at NMAAHC dedication outside US Capitol, 2003.
Commander Mark Mitchell at the commissioning of the Coast Guard Cutter, “Alex Haley” (WMEC-39)
Lonnie Bunch Discussing The Mitchell Collection
Mark speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, DC
Peter Williams, Jr. – “An Oration on The Abolition of The Slave Trade,” 1808
Phillis Wheatley – First Published African American
Zora Neale Hurston – Harlem Renaissance Period Writer
Rev. Richard Allen’s Sermon on the Death of George Washington
Langston Hughes – Poet Laureate of the Negro Race
Rev. Richard Allen – First Bishop of the A.M.E. Church
Journal of Daniel Coker: “Thank the Lord I Have Seen Africa!”
Paul Laurence Dunbar – Snapshot of the Newlywed Author
Paul Laurence Dunbar – A Fair Copy of His Most Famous Poem “Life”
William Wells Brown – First Novel by an African American
Countee Cullen – A Fair Copy of His Celebrated Poem “Yet Do I Marvel”
Samuel D. Ferguson – First Black Member of the Protestant Episcopal House of Bishops
Mahalia Jackson – Queen of the Gospel Song
Amiri Baraka – Script for the Activist’s Award-Winning Play, Dutchman
Alice Walker – Signed First Edition of The Color Purple
Alice Walker – 1985 Film Version Was Ranked in the Top 5
Rev. James H. Holmes – Pastor of Largest Church in the South
First Black Mega-Church Numbered 3,000 Members in Richmond
Benjamin Banneker – Early African American Mathematical Genius
The Signature of Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin Banneker – Surveys Boundaries of District of Columbia, the New Federal City
Toussaint Louverture – Led Only Successful Slave Revolt of Modern Times
Jack Johnson – The First African American Heavyweight Boxing Champion
Toussaint Louverture, Revolutionary Haitian General, Writes to Future King Henri Christophe
The Greatest Black Jockey in History
Frederick Douglass – Most Influential 19th Century African American
1923 Lincoln College Football Team
Frederick Douglass – New U.S. Minister to Haiti Writes to a Friend
Jackie Robinson – First African American in Major League Baseball
Frederick Douglass’ Calling Card as U.S. Minister to Haiti
Jesse Owens Stars in the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Matthew Henson – First African American Polar Explorer
Joe Louis – His 1938 Comeback Victory
Madame C.J. Walker – Recognized as First African American Millionaire
Negro League Bat Used by Legendary Pittsburgh Crawfords
George Washington Carver – The Great Agricultural Chemist and Educator
Henry “Hank” Aaron 1954 Topps Rookie Baseball Card
George Washington Carver – Writes a Colleague Concerning Peanut Plant Disease
“Hank” Aaron – Stats from Rookie Card
Marcus Garvey – Publishing Tycoon Revived the Recolonization Movement
Althea Gibson Wins Wimbledon Singles Tennis Championship
Bill Pickett – Black Film Star Innovated Modern-Day Steer Wrestling
Jim Brown – Rookie Card of Star Cleveland Browns Fullback
Asa Philip Randolph – Early Labor Leader Planned 1963 March on Washington
Jim Brown – Stats from His 1957 Rookie Card
Bessie Coleman – First African American Aviatrix Inspired Others
“The Greatest” Muhammad Ali – Rare Early Photo Signed as Cassius Clay
Dr. Charles Drew – His Blood Plasma Methods Saved Countless Lives
“Marion Motley Day” Program
Dr. Charles R. Drew – Portrait of the Medical Pioneer
Arthur Ashe – First African American Male to Win Wimbledon Tennis Championship
Cigarette Advertisement Targeted at Blacks
Michael Jordan Guarding Magic Johnson in an NBA Game
USAF Major Guion S. Bluford, Jr. – First Black Astronaut
The First African American Newspaper
William Lloyd Garrison – Founder and Publisher of The Liberator Newspaper
The Liberator – The Most Influential Abolitionist Newspaper in History
William Lloyd Garrison – Autograph Quote on the Institution of Slavery
Frederick Douglass’ Legendary North Star
EBONY – Cover Photo and Article by Famed Bandleader and Composer, Duke Ellington
JET Magazine – Wife Myrlie and Children of Slain Civil Rights Activist Medgar Evers
Alex Haley – Journalist, Author, and Lecturer
Alex Haley’s 1964 Personal Diary and Logbook
Alex Haley – The Beginnings of Roots
Two Slaves Battle Each Other in Court
The Dred Scott Decision – Slaves and Their Descendants Have No Rights
John Rock – First Black Attorney to Appear Before the Supreme Court
Macon Bolling Allen – First African American Licensed Attorney
Thurgood Marshall – The First African American Supreme Court Justice
Thurgood Marshall – NAACP’s Chief Counsel and Civil Rights Champion
Brown v. Board of Education – Overturned “Separate But Equal” Treatment
