Acknowledging the First Edition (Fine Arts Library, University of Texas at Austin, Spring Semester 2020)
In recognition of Black History Month, this display in the Fine Arts Library brings together first editions of books from Dr. Eddie Chambers's personal collection with a particular relevance to African American, African Diaspora and Black Studies. "First editions are a wonderful pedagogical tool, enabling us to virtually time travel back to the time, culture, and political sensibilities of the precise period in which such books were published. This appreciation is enhanced when books were issued with dust jackets, which were often commissioned from leading artists such as Aaron Douglas and Miguel Covarrubias," says Dr. Eddie Chambers of the display.
A number of these first editions indicate the arc of scholarship relating to African American art history. On display are first or early editions of The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery, W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk, Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men, James Weldon Johnson's God's Trombones, and other volumes.