Martin Luther King Jr. Family Photos Discovered in Abandoned House

In a rare coincidence, the block on which the auction house stands is the Underground Railroad, a Revolutionary War-era pocket of freedom for slaves. Part of the block is threatened with destruction to make room for an apartment house.

Early photos of Dr. King will join many other fascinating items at an upcoming auction in Yonkers, New York. Photo of Dr. King courtesy: kohm.org

(YONKERS, N.Y.) - An album with over two hundred original snapshots of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s family, found in an abandoned house, will soon be crossing the auction block.

Spanning six decades, the original photographs were accumulated by Dr. King’s aunt. Other items stuffed into the custom leather binder, worn from use, include her personal color poster of Martin, Jr., a broadside for "Daddy" King’s sermon, and an ironic Mother’s Day card.

Never published, the photos and papers will be offered in an auction in Yonkers, New York, on March 18th. They provide a candid and flattering view of the most influential African-American family in modern history.

The pre-sale estimate for the 270 items is $9,000 to $12,000. The auction house, Cohasco, Inc., previously handled the sale of the Bible of King’s mother and aunt, which had also been abandoned. Among over 600 other lots of collectibles in the auction are:

A Cadillac advertising archive showing the making of that icon of the 1950's and 1960's. It was the most expensive print-ad campaign up to its day. The collection includes pictures of precious jewels in the shape of Cadillac’s crest, and actual swatches of the gowns worn by the models. The many photos capture the Fabulous Fifties, by the era’s foremost fashion photographers, including Horst and McLaughlin-Gill (over 450 pieces, estimate $40,000-$60,000).

An original Boston broadside featuring John Wilkes Booth in the starring role, two years before he lept into the pages of history from the stage of Ford’s Theatre ($300-$400).

A major collection of rare letters, documents, and books on the old South. It includes a hand-drawn map of Mississippi in 1775, when it was still part of "British West Florida", a family bible maintained from 1839 to 1979 on a Southern plantation, and a set of encyclopedias from the home of a slaveholder and the biggest cotton planter in the world ($80,000-$110,000).

A 1774 pamphlet said to be "the forerunner of the Declaration of Independence". Its list of grievances of the American colonists is the very bedrock of the United States ($2,500-$3,000).

A fragment of an Egyptian business document from about 400 B.C. ($90-$120) and many other unusual items.

In a rare coincidence, the block on which the auction house stands is significant in African-American history: the Underground Railroad, a Revolutionary War-era pocket of freedom for slaves, and the site of the first black churches in the area all figured here. Part of the block is threatened with destruction to make room for an apartment house.

For more information, please contact Bob Snyder. His e-mail is: info@cohascodpc.com