Both autograph letters and typed letters. About 90 are in plastic sleeves in a binder, 30 have envelopes and are loose. Plus 7 photographs of airplanes c.1930, including 2 of the Spirit of St. Louis, 1 of them with Charles Lindbergh.

Significant archive of letters written to the tenor Roland Hayes (1887-1977), the first African American man to win international fame as a concert performer. The son of former slaves, Hayes began singing Negro spirituals in church, and on the street for small change. His singing ability landed him a scholarship to Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. He moved beyond spirituals to classical music, and achieved some success in the United States, but it was not until he toured Europe in 1920 that he catapulted to fame, and he was in great demand on his return to the United States. At the highpoint of his career, he was earning as much as $100,000 per years, a princely sum at the time. He was eventually able to buy the 600 acre farm in Georgia where his mother was a slave, and where he was born. Although Hayes was not a battler for civil rights, he was much concerned with helping young people, and African American boys and girls in particular, advance in musical careers. He was sought after by various rights organizations, such as the NAACP, for conducting concerts to raise money for their causes. Most of the letters in the archive date from 1932 and 1933, when he was at the height of his fame, though a few are later. There are letters from fans seeking autographs, old acquaintances asking for free tickets, ministers and church groups asking him to give concerts, admirers telling how his music touched them, entrepreneurs attempting to arrange recitals, and more. Among the letters: From Thomas Jones, President of Fisk University, about attempts to build a headquarters for their Music School. * From Richard Hoskins of Mary’s Prospective Manual Training School, asking Hayes to give a concert at one or two of the “white churches” in Brookline, to benefit the training school “for boys and girls of our race.” * From Robert Elzy of the Brooklyn Urban League, asking if Hayes would like to make a contribution “out of your part of the money received from the Recital on March 6th at Town Hall.” * From J. Quinton Jackson, Minister of the Calvary Baptist Church of Haverhill, Mass., asking “if you would stoop to such an humble invitation – to come out to Haverhill and present a recital for me… Just so you’ll come – and at a low price…” * From the Young Negro’s Co-operative League, about a farm project Hayes is sponsoring, and asking for a 15-minute interview. * From Walter White, Secretary at the Executive Offices of the NAACP, asking if Hayes would participate in a project of “taking moving pictures of a group of Negroes who have distinguished themselves in one way or another…” * And many more.

This remarkable archive is from the estate of George Fiske Hammond I, grandfather of the current owner, was a (white) early pioneer aviator, from a socially prominent southern California family, who not only worked on the Spirit of St. Louis but also created his own airport in Montecito, Cal. In 1932 and 1933, Hammond, then in his mid-thirties, would fly Roland Hayes to all of his singing engagements around the country. He became Hayes’ business manager, handling his contacts. Apparently these letters passed to Hammond upon Hayes’ death. Included in the lot are the photographs of planes including Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis.