black and white stereograph mounted on yellow cardstock; printed on recto "Providence, R.I. / American Scenery / Park."; Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Providence, Rhode Island; carved relief inscription reads "Erected by the people of Rhode Island to the memory of the brave men who died so that their country might live"; this monument is dedicated to the 1st Rhode Island and the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery (African-American) who fought in the Civil War; at the top of the monument is a female allegorical figure holding a laurel wreath in her outstretched right arm and a sword in her left hand; the four buttresses of the base hold four bronze statues representing infantry, cavalry, artillery and naval veterans; the large bronze plaques on the base list the residents killed in the Civil War; the bronze bas-relief plaques with carved releif depictions representing war, victory, peace and history illustrated with African-American women; the monument was designed by Randolph Rogers; the figures were sculpted in Rome and cast in Munich before being assembled in Providence; the monument was dedicated in 1871; monument is surrounded by a white picket fence
This cap, ca. the 1950s, is characteristic of such caps seen at railroad stations throughout North America from the 1920s till about the 1980s. The cloth appears to be silk, which gives a sheen to the cap's fabric; silk was not unusual for red caps.
This cap was used by an employee of the Canadian National Railway, a fact that in no way detracts from the cap's relevance to U.S. railroad history or to African American history. U.S. and Canadian railroads in fact have operated as a seamless, interchangeable rail network from the late 1890s to the present day, and the Canadian National, in particular, historically owned rail lines operating in Michigan. The Canadian Pacific Railway historically owned lines across Maine. Employment conditions for "red caps" at Canadian terminals were identical to such conditions at U.S. depots.
Navy backpack with black zippers and mesh pockets "Jansport"
Backpack worn by Lori Montenegro at 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. The backpack protected her from riot bullets fired by police. (see 2022.0267.3.1 & 2022.0267.3.2)
UNITED STATES / Senate and House of Representatives / NEWS GALLERIES / LORESTINA MONTENEGRO / UNIVISION NEWS / RADIO - TV / 104th CONGRESS 2nd SESSION / EXPIRES FEBRUARY 28, 1997
Casing from rubber bullet shot at Lori Montenegro during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
"40MM MUNITIONS WARNING / SIGNALING / 50 METERS / Part No. 6028WS" "TO BE USED BY TRAINED LAW ENFORCEMENT, CORRECTIONAL OR MILITARY PERSONNEL / DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY TM / CASPER, WY 82601 / A BRAND OF THE SAFARILAND GROUP / 07819 / MFG 2019 / 38 SHORT COLT
Casing from rubber bullet shot at Lori Montenegro during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
"40MM MUNITIONS WARNING / SIGNALING / 100 METERS / Part No. 6029WS" "TO BE USED BY TRAINED LAW ENFORCEMENT, CORRECTIONAL OR MILITARY PERSONNEL / DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY TM / CASPER, WY 82601 / A BRAND OF THE SAFARILAND GROUP / 09218 / MFG 2018 / 38 SHORT COLT
The National Cash Register Company refurbished this machine and resold it in 1950 to Harold Cotton, Sr. in Greensboro, NC. The register has a single drawer and 26 keys. The keys allowed for sales costing only a handful of change to higher dollar amounts. Common purchase prices of $1 to $5 dollars had their own keys, making it quicker for the cashier to execute a sale. Importantly, the register kept a record of sales and had a lock on the cash drawer. Shop owners had long used cash registers as a tool to control access to money and keep tabs on clerks.
This register tells a powerful story about black-owned, small business in the mid-twentieth century. The register served as the hub exchange in Cotton’s hat blocking shop and it was well-used. At this register both black and white customers paid for the services -- having a hat cleaned or their shoes shined. The profits held inside its drawer and recorded on the paper tape sustained Cotton’s family and the larger African American community.
As a small businessman, Cotton used the income from his shop to move up the economic ladder and promote the welfare of the black community. Profits from the shop supported institutions within the black community, including St. Stephen’s United Church of Christ, the local black Boy Scout troop, and the NAACP.
Black businesses such as Cotton’s, provided an economic foundation for African American communities that faced segregation, disenfranchisement, and violence. Black shops and storefronts provided shelter for the development of black public space in an otherwise hostile environment while the income from these business sustained a range of churches, schools and other community institutions. In many cases, the entrepreneurs who ran businesses, no matter how small, had the capital to fund political and social movements.
In 1950, Harold Cotton, Sr. earned this diploma for completing a course in hat cleaning and blocking from the Chicago School of Shoe Repair. The trade school advertised heavily to veterans in Popular Mechanics and Popular Science in the late 1940s, saying the practical courses were GI approved and allowed men to own their own businesses. The trade of hat blocking provided a stepping stone for Cotton, who would buy his own hat blocking and shoeshine shop in his hometown of Greensboro, NC in 1953. The shop, known as Bob’s Hatters for the previous owner Robert Taylor, was located at 108 McGee Street, across from a bustling hotel and in the middle ground between black and white Greensboro.
As an African-American small businessman, Cotton used the income from his shop to move up the economic ladder and promote the welfare of the black community. Profits from the shop supported institutions within the black community, including St. Stephen’s United Church of Christ, the local black Boy Scout troop, and the NAACP. In an era that bridged Jim Crow segregation and the postwar Civil Rights movement, Cotton’s shop served all races but the service remained segregated. Cotton desegregated his shop during the Greensboro sit-ins, allowing an African American marine to sit in one of the shoe-shine chairs, to the chagrin of Cotton’s white landlord.
Black businesses such as Cotton’s provided an economic foundation for African American communities that faced segregation, disenfranchisement, and violence. Black shops and storefronts provided shelter for the development of black public space in an otherwise hostile environment while the income from these business sustained a range of churches, schools and other community institutions. In many cases, the entrepreneurs who ran businesses, no matter how small, had the capital to fund political and social movements.
The cap is has a stiff crown and flat circular top with a short visor. A black braid stretches across the visor and is attached to the hat by buttons on each side of the hat. It has a badge on the front with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad logo, L&N and the words TRIAN PORTER. On each side is a button with the initials L&N.
This particular porter's cap was owned by Mr. Henry Taylor, a porter for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad from the 1940s through the 1960s. Mr. Taylor worked aboard the L&N Railroad's coaches on overnight trains, assisting passengers. Sleeping cars assigned to L&N overnight trains were operated by Pullman, and so the porters on those cars worked for Pullman, not for the Louisvile and Nashville Railroad.
With her camera, Lisa Law documented history in the heart of the counterculture revolution of the 1960s as she lived it, as a participant, an agent of change and a member of the broader culture. She recorded this unconventional time of Anti-War demonstrations in California, communes, Love-Ins, peace marches and concerts, as well as her family life as she became a wife and mother. The photographs were collected by William Yeingst and Shannon Perich in a cross-unit collecting collaboration. Together they selected over two hundred photographs relevant to photographic history, cultural history, domestic life and social history.
Law’s portraiture and concert photographs include Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Lovin Spoonful and Peter, Paul and Mary. She also took several of Janis Joplin and her band Big Brother and the Holding Company, including the photograph used to create the poster included in the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum’s exhibition 1001 Days and Nights in American Art. Law and other members of the Hog Farm were involved in the logistics of setting up the well-known musical extravaganza, Woodstock. Her photographs include the teepee poles going into the hold of the plane, a few concert scenes and amenities like the kitchen and medical tent. Other photographs include peace rallies and concerts in Haight-Ashbury, Coretta Scott King speaking at an Anti-War protest and portraits of Allen Ginsburg and Timothy Leary. From her life in New Mexico the photographs include yoga sessions with Yogi Bhajan, bus races, parades and other public events. From life on the New Buffalo Commune, there are many pictures of her family and friends taken during meal preparation and eating, farming, building, playing, giving birth and caring for children.
Ms. Law did not realize how important her photographs were while she was taking them. It was not until after she divorced her husband, left the farm for Santa Fe and began a career as a photographer that she realized the depth of history she recorded. Today, she spends her time writing books, showing her photographs in museums all over the United States and making documentaries. In 1990, her video documentary, “Flashing on the Sixties,” won several awards.
A selection of photographs was featured in the exhibition A Visual Journey: Photographs by Lisa Law, 1964–1971, at the National Museum of American History October 1998-April 1999.