James Amos Porter Archive Comes to Auction

Among the highlights of our 15th annual auction of Printed & Manuscript African Americana is an incredible archive comprising James Amos Porter’s African-American Art History Reference materials. The lot contains thousands of items such as photographs, letters, exhibit catalogues, art books, flyers, and bibliographical data. The material is housed in more than 15 large cartons.

Porter was an artist, author and Head of the Art Department at Howard University for more than 40 years. One of America’s pioneer art historians, he authored the groundbreaking text, Modern Negro Art. The archive includes correspondence from virtually every major African-American artist from the 1920s forward, including Romare Bearden, Lois Mailou Jones, Meta Warwick Fuller, Elizabeth Catlett, Hughie Lee-Smith and scores of others.