[Small Broadside]: R.W.G. Council I.O. of St. Luke. Richmond, Virginia. Price List

Revised edition. Broadside. Single sheet of pale pink paper. Printed on recto only. Measuring 4½" x 11". Two old creases from folding, else a fine copy. The Right Worthy Grand Council, Independent Order of Saint Luke was founded in 1867 by the formerly enslaved Mary Prout. The St. Luke Society was founded to assist the sick and aged, and to bury its members. Under the leadership of Maggie Walker, the Society became involved in various business interests, including the ownership of the largest African-American bank in Richmond, Virginia. The broadside lists 55 individually priced items offered for sale, including books (bibles, law books, rituals, etc.), regalia, swords, crosses, gavels, seals, buttons, badges, etc. States "Revised List January, 1921." "Maggie Lena Mitchell (1867-1934) was born in Richmond, Virginia. At the age of 14 she joined the local council of the Independent Order of St. Luke, a fraternal burial society, established in 1867 in Baltimore, administered to the sick and aged, promoted humanitarian causes and encouraged individual self-help and integrity. In 1902 Mrs. Walker established a newspaper, 'The St. Luke Herald' [and] in 1903 she founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank [and] served as the bank's first president, [making her] the first woman to charter a bank in the United States. [Under her leadership] the bank merged with two other Richmond banks to become The Consolidated Bank and Trust Company, [thriving today] as the oldest continually African American-operated bank in the United States" (National Park Service site; also, James, 'Notable American Women,' Vol. III, p. 530; Mjagkij, 'Organizing Black America: Encyclopedia of African American Associations,' p. 233). Unrecorded by *OCLC*, which does note a few holdings of other ephemeral publications by the Independent Order of St. Luke.…