Tag Archives: African American

Regina Anderson Andrews and the Power of Libraries

As a lover of both libraries and theater, it perhaps inevitable that I discovered Regina Anderson Andrews, playwright, actress, salon holder, and librarian in New York City from the 1920s to the 1960s.  Anderson (1901-1993) was born in Chicago and … Continue reading

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Eunice Johnson–Black Power Fashion

It is hard to overestimate the contribution of Eunice Johnson (1916-2010) to African American fashion in the United States.  She and her husband were the founders of Ebony and Jet.  Although she worked as secretary and treasurer for the Johnson … Continue reading

Posted in 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990, 2000s, 2010s, General | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Meet Bricktop, International Star

Born in West Virginia in 1894, Ada “Bricktop” Smith gained her nickname because of her red hair. Her family soon moved to Chicago, a center of African American culture, where she started performing full time at age sixteen.  She didn’t … Continue reading

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Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee’s Bend Quilter

I imagine most textile lovers like myself know about the Gee’s Bend quilters, a remarkable group of Black women who developed their own strikingly modern quilting style in an isolated community in Alabama.  They became so famous that their work … Continue reading

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Dottie Quinn–A Life in Pants

I love being able to follow a woman’s clothing choices from youth to age, sometimes possible when I stumble upon a family photo collection online.  That was the case for Sylvia Dorothy Quinn, known to all as Dottie.  Her husband, … Continue reading

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Easter Hat, 1959

Photos by the street photographer Angelo Abruzzo show New York in the fifties and sixties.  Similar to the Chicago photographer Vivian Maier, his work was unknown during his lifetime.  Later studies stress the fact that the people in his photos … Continue reading

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Final Fitting, 1966

This photograph from the Chicago Tribune shows the sewing instructor Essie Cannon, on the right, checking the fit on a coat made by Mary Davis, on the left.  Cannon was a teacher at the Midwest Senior Center in Chicago where … Continue reading

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Lois Alexander and the Black Fashion Museum

Most fashion museums focus on the works of famous designers and the clothes of the well-off women who supported them.  The Black Fashion Museum, which existed from 1979 to 2007, had a different mission.  Under the leadership of the visionary … Continue reading

Posted in 1970s, 1980s, 1990, 2000s | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Family Road Trip

In honor of summer holidays, I give you this photo of what I’m guessing was a family road trip.  It could just be a Sunday outing, but only the son with his tie looks dressed up enough to have come … Continue reading

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The Red Hat Society Lives On

Any commentary about older women and fashion in America must address the Red Hat Society, a loosely knit organization of women over fifty.  Moreover, the founder of the group, Sue Ellen Cooper, hails from my neck of the woods in … Continue reading

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