[AFRICAN AMERICANA.] "Pictures of Distinguished Negroes" advertising catalog issued by The Associated Publishers. Washington, D.C., n.d. [ca. 1940s].

4pp, 8 1/2 x 9 1/2 in., on one folding sheet (creasing, folds, light wear). Front page featuring portraits of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Paul L. Dunbar, and S. Coleridge-Taylor, and heralding "The history of the Negro race told with the pictures of its great men and women." The leaflet's interior lists the names of 160 prominent African American figures whose portraits were offered for sale, including "Negro Women of Distinction," "Negroes of Genius," "Prominent Negroes in the Antebellum Crisis," "Negro Statesmen," "Captains of Industry," "Negro Editors," and "Outstanding Negro Churchmen." Back page includes mail-in order form.

The Associated Publishers was a publishing company founded in 1921 by Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), a "Father of Black History." Woodson was an African American historian and journalist, and a founder of both the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) and The Journal of Negro History. The son of formerly enslaved parents, he earned his PhD in history at Harvard University, only the second African American to earn his doctorate there (W.E.B. DuBois being the first). Because major publishing companies showed no interest in producing works related to African American history, Woodson organized The Associated Publishers as an outlet for publishing papers, books, translations, and other materials related to African American life and history.