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- THE DOUGLASS BAND BOYS [Negative Title - Original Panoramic Photograph]
THE DOUGLASS BAND BOYS [Negative Title - Original Panoramic Photograph]
THE DOUGLASS BAND BOYS [Negative Title - Original Panoramic Photograph]
An orginal panoramic photograph by an early Black St. Louis photographer capturing members of the Douglass School Band in the yard of the School's buiding on Holland Avenue in Webster Groves, Missouri, likely in about 1918. Lettering in the negative identifies the band manager as H.J. Simms, its instructor as P.B. Lankford, and the photographer as Sexton (whom we know to be Henry W. Sexton of St. Louis).
Douglass was located in the historically-Black north end of Webster Groves, a tony inner-ring suburb of St. Louis. A segregated all-Black school for the community had been in place since as early as 1866 with the building here having been constructed in about 1892 and named Douglass. Morris and Ambrose note:
"In 1916, Douglass School was wired fo electricity, and Harvey Simms joined the faculty. Simms had graduated from Douglass in 1906 and attended Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City, Missouri. A small man who walked with a crutch, he taught fifth and sixth grades, sometimes delighting his students with a taffy pull. He played football, coached baseball, and organized the first Douglass School Band. He directed the band for ten years, and some of its members later became professional musicians. Joe Thomas, one of his students, went on to play with Duke Ellington." (pp. 13)*
Henry W. Sexton was born in Alton, Illinois in about 1867 to a Willis W. Sexton and a Caroline Grouff (the former a veteran of the 29th Colored Infantry). Reference suggests he was in business as a photographer as early as 1904 up until his death in 1932, occupying the N. Jefferson Ave. offices cited here from about 1917 to 1918. He was closely associated with Black Press daily the St. Louis Argus, and in 1915 was contracted to provide photographic services for its new pictorial section in exchange for the rights to sell prints of published images to readers. (GREENE, pp.4)**
We note the presence of another copy of this photograph (in notably lesser condition) in the Henrietta Ambrose papers at the State Historical Society of Missouri. It was utilized as the cover image for NORTH WEBSTER where it also appears in the text across pp. 94-95 identifying musician Joe Thomas as ninth from the left.
*MORRIS, Ann ; AMBROSE, Henrietta. NORTH WEBSTER: A Photographic History of a Black Community ; Indiana University Press, 1992
**GREENE, Debra Foster ; "Just Enough of Everything”: The St. Louis Argus—An African American Newspaper and Publishing Company in Its First Decade" ; Business and Economic History On-Line (Journal of The Business History Conference), Vol 4, 2006.
SEXTON, [Henry W.] - photographer : [African-American Education] : [Missouriana]. THE DOUGLASS BAND BOYS [Negative Title - Original Panoramic Photograph]. Webster [Groves], Missouri: [ca. 1918]. Single black and white photograph. Sepia-toned silver gelatin print on single weight card stock approximately 23 1/2" x 7" (with an image area of approximately 21" x 6 3/4"). Lettering in negative reads: "THE DOUGLASS BAND BOYS / H.J. SIMMS, MAN. P.B. LANKFORD INSTRUCTOR / WEBSTER, MO / PHOTO BY SEXTON / 6, N. JEFFERSON AVE / ST LOUIS, MO" and with an ink hand notation to verso reading: "PLEASE SEND ME MONEY / TO PAY FOR THIS PICTURE / HAVEN'T PAID FOR IT." General wear from handling and storage with a section of loss to card at upper right corner, outside of image area. Apart from edgwear to lower margin, exposure entirely intact. About good.
An orginal panoramic photograph by an early Black St. Louis photographer capturing members of the Douglass School Band in the yard of the School's buiding on Holland Avenue in Webster Groves, Missouri, likely in about 1918. Lettering in the negative identifies the band manager as H.J. Simms, its instructor as P.B. Lankford, and the photographer as Sexton (whom we know to be Henry W. Sexton of St. Louis).
Douglass was located in the historically-Black north end of Webster Groves, a tony inner-ring suburb of St. Louis. A segregated all-Black school for the community had been in place since as early as 1866 with the building here having been constructed in about 1892 and named Douglass. Morris and Ambrose note:
"In 1916, Douglass School was wired fo electricity, and Harvey Simms joined the faculty. Simms had graduated from Douglass in 1906 and attended Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City, Missouri. A small man who walked with a crutch, he taught fifth and sixth grades, sometimes delighting his students with a taffy pull. He played football, coached baseball, and organized the first Douglass School Band. He directed the band for ten years, and some of its members later became professional musicians. Joe Thomas, one of his students, went on to play with Duke Ellington." (pp. 13)*
Henry W. Sexton was born in Alton, Illinois in about 1867 to a Willis W. Sexton and a Caroline Grouff (the former a veteran of the 29th Colored Infantry). Reference suggests he was in business as a photographer as early as 1904 up until his death in 1932, occupying the N. Jefferson Ave. offices cited here from about 1917 to 1918. He was closely associated with Black Press daily the St. Louis Argus, and in 1915 was contracted to provide photographic services for its new pictorial section in exchange for the rights to sell prints of published images to readers. (GREENE, pp.4)**
We note the presence of another copy of this photograph (in notably lesser condition) in the Henrietta Ambrose papers at the State Historical Society of Missouri. It was utilized as the cover image for NORTH WEBSTER where it also appears in the text across pp. 94-95 identifying musician Joe Thomas as ninth from the left.
*MORRIS, Ann ; AMBROSE, Henrietta. NORTH WEBSTER: A Photographic History of a Black Community ; Indiana University Press, 1992
**GREENE, Debra Foster ; "Just Enough of Everything”: The St. Louis Argus—An African American Newspaper and Publishing Company in Its First Decade" ; Business and Economic History On-Line (Journal of The Business History Conference), Vol 4, 2006.
SEXTON, [Henry W.] - photographer : [African-American Education] : [Missouriana]. THE DOUGLASS BAND BOYS [Negative Title - Original Panoramic Photograph]. Webster [Groves], Missouri: [ca. 1918]. Single black and white photograph. Sepia-toned silver gelatin print on single weight card stock approximately 23 1/2" x 7" (with an image area of approximately 21" x 6 3/4"). Lettering in negative reads: "THE DOUGLASS BAND BOYS / H.J. SIMMS, MAN. P.B. LANKFORD INSTRUCTOR / WEBSTER, MO / PHOTO BY SEXTON / 6, N. JEFFERSON AVE / ST LOUIS, MO" and with an ink hand notation to verso reading: "PLEASE SEND ME MONEY / TO PAY FOR THIS PICTURE / HAVEN'T PAID FOR IT." General wear from handling and storage with a section of loss to card at upper right corner, outside of image area. Apart from edgwear to lower margin, exposure entirely intact. About good.