AARON DOUGLAS (1899 - 1979) Ex Libris Charles S. Johnson.

AARON DOUGLAS (1899 - 1979)
Ex Libris Charles S. Johnson.

Collotype on thin cream wove paper, circa 1925-26. 108x76 mm; 4¼x3 inches (sheet).

Provenance: collection of Charles Spurgeon Johnson, New York; private collection, Georgia.

Charles Spurgeon Johnson (July 24, 1893 – October 27, 1956) was an American sociologist and college administrator, the first black president of Fisk University, and a lifelong advocate for racial equality and the advancement of civil rights. During the Harlem Renaissance, Charles S. Johnson was also the editor of Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life, the monthly publication of the National Urban League.

One of the leading intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance, alongside Alain Locke and Langston Hughes, Johnson was also a very influential figure on the artists of the time. In 1924, he actively recruited the talented, young Aaron Douglas to leave his high school teaching position in Kansas to come to Harlem. In 1925, soon after his arrival in New York, Douglas began received commissions for covers on Opportunity.

This scarce bookplate is an excellent example of Douglas's early graphic design. He also created a bookplate for Alain Locke - an example is found inside Locke's personal copy of the 1925 first edition of The New Negro in the Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.