Publications of the Associated Publishers, Inc

Washington, DC: The Associated Publishers, Inc, 1926. [8]pp. Illustrated. Original self wrappers, stapled. Light toning and thumb-soiling. Very good. [with:] Pictures of Distinguished Negroes. Washington, DC: The Associated Publishers, Inc., [1927?]. [4]pp. on a single folded sheet. Folded, with short separations to upper fold lines. Light toning. Very good. An informative pair of promotional pamphlets issued by the Associated Publishers, a notable African-American publishing house during the early-20th century. Both works provide a valuable peek into the marketing of books and images to the African-American community in the early-20th century. The first work, Publications of the Associated Publishers, Inc., is a catalogue of currently available publications listed by title, author, and other specific details, with descriptions of each book at varying lengths. The authors represented here include Carter Woodson (numerous titles here), Kelly Miller, Robert Kerlin, Booker T. Washington, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and others. Three works, including the Washington and Dunbar, are given full-page, illustrated treatment here. The penultimate page includes a listing of all the "Works Produced by the Association since its Organization, September 9, 1915." Our proposed date for the work comes from the fact that the first two books listed -- the only two books listed on the first page -- were published in 1926. OCLC lists different versions of Associated Publishers catalogues issued between 1924 and the 1960s, but we do not locate the present version.

The second work present here advertises collections of portraits of notable African-American leaders, authors, musicians, artists, and more, touted as "The history of the Negro race told with the pictures of its great men and women." The front cover of the brochure is illustrated with portraits of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The main thrust of the work includes a dozen themed groups of pictures offered under titles such as "Negroes Internationally Known," "Negro Women of Distinction," "Negroes of Genius," and so forth. In total, the brochure offers portraits of over 150 prominent African American figures. Also available are larger-format photographs, measuring 11 x 14 inches, featuring "Eleven Distinguished Negroes." The brochure ends with an order form. Dating this brochure is challenging because of the rarity of both the brochure and the photographs it advertises. OCLC lists just one record under this title, comprising a hundred pictures, dated 1927. Harlem bookseller Lewis Michaux repurposed the present brochure in the 1950s, perhaps to advertise the remainder of photographs not originally sold by Associated.

Associated Publishers was a publishing company founded in 1921 by Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), a "Father of Black History." Woodson was an African American historian and journalist, and a founder of both the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) and The Journal of Negro History. The son of formerly enslaved parents, Woodson earned a Ph.D. in history at Harvard, only the second African American to do so after W.E.B. DuBois. Confronted with the realization that major publishing companies showed no interest in producing works related to African American life and history, Woodson organized The Associated Publishers as an outlet for publishing papers, books, translations, and other materials related to African American culture.