American Historical Ephemera and Photography

7 x 4 in. silver gelatin photograph (light edge and corner wear). Recto, lower right with Carl Van Vechten's embossed blindstamp. Verso with Van Vechten's studio stamp, as well as the title, date (20 October 1949), and inventory number, in ink, in an unknown hand. A full-length view of Josephine Baker (1906-1975), famed Harlem Renaissance dancer, actress, and Civil Rights activist.

Carl Van Vechten was well-connected to the people and places of the Harlem Renaissance at a time when racial segregation and Jim Crow laws were intense. Throughout the 1920s, he indulged in the parties and social scene of New York's Black creative class, which he captured in his provocatively titled novel Nigger Heaven. When the Depression came, he stopped writing novels and began taking photographs, most notably of influential African Americans, taking iconic portraits of thought leaders, entertainment stars, sports figures, artists, writers of the Harlem Renaissance, and more. His collection of over 9000 images, mostly portraits, is held at the Beinecke Library at Yale University.