Unique Window Into a Divine Nine Black Greek Letter Organization in Baltimore

[African Americana]: [Education]: [Omega Psi Phi]:

[Photographically-Illustrated Annotated Scrapbook Documenting the Activities of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity at Morgan State College].

Baltimore: primarily 1954. [17] leaves, illustrated with twenty-seven original photographs, most in corner mounts, and numerous ephemeral items and periodical clippings. Folio. Original black cloth, embossed in blind on front cover, with titles and decoration in gilt, string-tied. Moderate chipping to edges of leaves, text leaves tanned and somewhat fragile, several leaves detached. Good condition. Item #12810

An informative photographically-illustrated and annotated scrapbook assembled at Morgan State College (now university) in Baltimore in the Eisenhower years, and documenting the campus activities of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. The compiler is not identified, but was surely a member of the fraternity. Most of the photographs shoe Lambados Club members engaged in pledge activities, capturing pledges holding light bulbs while standing in heavy topcoats at various campus locations, posing in formations while dressed in matching suits and berets while holding canes and placards identifying the subjects as "Dog No. 1," "Dog No. 2," and so forth, and chanting as they march a cross campus in close single file while dressed identically in white oxfords, khaki pants, white tennis sweaters, dangling chains, and dark-billed caps. Other photos depict pledges at a Morgan State-Howard football game with "The ques of Howard & Morgan singing at halftime."

The ephemeral items include tickets, invitations, ribbons, programs, broadsides, a gold & purple patch, and more. These items include a manuscript copy of a Rudyard Kipling's poem "If," that pledges were expected to memorize, a "Summons" to appear at a party in New York City, a ticket for an event called "Lamp Leap," programs for memorial services, a group of clippings, photos, and other material featuring "Big Brothers" who became successful in the military, politics, and sports, and two large broadsides. Respectively, the latter two items advertise a charity benefit aboard the "Omega Showboat" (actually the S.S. Robert Fulton) with music by Don Wilson and His Orchestra (measuring 14 x 19 inches) and a chapter-sponsored "Bi-Annual Skating Party at the Coliseum" (measuring 14 x 11 inches).

A wonderful record providing a rare peek into African-American Greek life within one of the Divine Nine at a Baltimore HBCU in the mid-1950s.

Price: $2,500