[Broadsides]: Two Broadsides Promoting Excursions of the Willing Workers Club

Two broadsides. Measuring 6" x 9.25" and 9" x 12". Each with a vignette and several typefaces. Paper of each is toned, small folds, tears or nicks at extremities, small old collection stamp on the backs, otherwise each is near fine. Two broadsides for excursions of The Boyer Lodge, one of the oldest African-American "Prince Hall Lodges" in America, which celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2012. The smaller and earlier of the two broadsides was printed in 1911 at the press of *The New York Age* at 247 W. 46th St. *The Age* was the most prominent African-American periodical of the time, closely associated with the careers of T. Thomas Fortune and Booker T. Washington. The Willing Workers Club was a sub-group of the Lodge, here described as traveling as a group to Locust Grove the ".most beautiful grove on Long Island Sound and the largest barge afloat, the Starina, have been engaged. Music will be furnished by the famous New Amsterdam Orchestra." By 1915, the 5th Annual Excursion, it had become a successful and popular annual recreational activity, with the club promoting the jaunt to Forest View Grove on the Hudson. This larger broadside, printed by John P. Wharton, Electric Power Printer at 447 Lenox Avenue, has a small woodcut illustration of a side-wheeler steamship. It claims: ".Our many friends who have gone with us before well remember our beautiful sails and lovely time. Music by the Craftmen's Band, J.R. Borroughs Leader. ." Both broadsides list Chairman William M. Stokes, along with several other committee members and information on ticket sales. Interesting view of African-American Masonry, recreation and transportation history ephemera from the early part of the 20th Century. *OCLC* locates no copies of either broadside.…