[Large Portrait Print of Nobel Prize-Winner Ralph Bunche issued by Associated Publishers].

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Almost life-size portrait of Ralph Bunche (1904–1971), political scientist, scholar, and diplomat. Bunche was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomatic negotiations effecting an armistice between the new state of Israel and its Arab neighbors. He was awarded the U.S. Medal of Freedom in 1963.

Bunche’s bust portrait was printed in a halftone process after a photograph likely taken the year before he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. Howard University records a print of this identical image, but their example has a caption and a copyright date of 1949.

Associated Publishers, Inc. of Washington, D.C. were established in 1921 by Carter G. Woodson to publish books on African American history, including his own. Known as the “Father of Black History,” Woodson began the annual celebration of Negro History Week (now Black History Month) in February 1926.

As discussed in Jarvis R. Given’s 2021 book Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching, the firm had a long history of publishing portraits of important African-Americans, “lithographs with suitable margins for framing.” These portraits were issued from the 1930s to possibly the 1960s.

Publishers sold individual prints and sets of “Pictures of Distinguished Negroes.” The catalog offered “Large Pictures” suitable for “Assembly Halls and Offices, Almost Life Size—19 x 24 Inches, $1.00 a Piece—Six for $5.00…They supply a long felt need for pictures large enough to be seen at a distance and easily recognized.”

Not in OCLC or in the collections of Howard University, including their digital “Associated Publishers Photograph Morgue.”

Price: $350.00