Preserving
Black Heritage
Historical Resources
Explore our curated collection of historically significant Black collectibles, featuring carefully researched and reviewed educational content.
Negro Heroes #1 (1947)
Negro Heroes #1, published in 1947 by the National Urban League, is an early comic book dedicated to celebrating Black history and achievement. This full-color publication features inspirational biographies and stories about prominent Black figures such as George Washington Carver, Mary McLeod Bethune, Paul Robeson, Matthew Henson, Charles French, Charles David Jr., and Charles Thomas.Each story highlights their courage, intellect, leadership, and contributions in the face of adversity, presenting a positive vision of Black excellence to young readers during a time when mainstream comics largely ignored or misrepresented Black heroes.
1976 Laughlin Indianapolis Clowns Toni Stone Card #27
The 1976 Laughlin Indianapolis Clowns Toni Stone card is a retrospective collectible honoring one of baseball's most groundbreaking figures. Featured in the 1976 Laughlin set commemorating the legendary Negro League team, this card depicts Toni Stone, the first woman of any race to play professional baseball as a regular player on a major men's team in the United States. Stone joined the Indianapolis Clowns in 1953 as a second baseman, filling the position vacated by Hank Aaron, who had just signed with the Milwaukee Braves. This card stands as the first widely distributed collectible honoring Stone's historic achievements in both baseball and women's sports history.
Prince – Yellow Cloud Guitar (1983)
The Yellow Cloud Guitar is one of the most iconic instruments associated with musician and cultural innovator Prince. Designed by Minneapolis luthier Dave Rusan in the early 1980s, the guitar features a distinctive cloud-shaped body finished in bright yellow with bold blue accents. The instrument became a defining visual element of Prince’s stage presence during the Purple Rain era, appearing in concerts, promotional imagery, and performances that helped cement his status as one of the most influential artists in modern music. Its unusual shape and vibrant design reflected Prince’s boundary-breaking artistic style, blending theatrical aesthetics with virtuoso musicianship.
Featured Grails
Black Grail Score in Action
Black Grail Score
out of 100
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl — Rare Presentation Copy
This first-edition copy of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Boston, 1861) is an exceptional presentation copy given by Harriet Jacobs’s daughter, Louisa Jacobs, to Sarah R. May, wife of abolitionist Rev. Samuel May Jr., in 1886. Bound in the publisher’s original light brown beaded cloth with gilt spine, this near-fine copy remains unrestored and is accompanied by extraordinary provenance: two period obituaries for Harriet Jacobs mounted within the book, and a fourteen-page holograph letter describing Jacobs’s 1897 funeral service, including a handwritten copy of the eulogy delivered by Rev. Francis James Grimké, a leading African American minister of the era. The letter, written by Sarah Earle to Samuel May, is the only known surviving eyewitness account of Jacobs’s funeral. The Mays were close friends and supporters of the Jacobs School, a Freedmen’s school founded in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1863 by Harriet and Louisa Jacobs to educate formerly enslaved Black children—a project that embodied Harriet’s belief that Black educators were essential for community empowerment.
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