[Young Woman Cradling "Positively NO TRUST" Sign]

James Van Der Zee American

Not on view

James Van Der Zee is known as the great chronicler of life in Harlem in the 1920s, but he also had a bustling commercial studio into the 1930s and 1940s in which he made advertising images for black owned businesses. This charming photograph is his version of a "No Trust" sign--a then common commercial sign (referred to by Herman Melville in his 1857 novel "The Confidence Man") reminding patrons that the establishment does keep tabs or credit.

[Young Woman Cradling "Positively NO TRUST" Sign], James Van Der Zee (American, Lenox, Massachusetts 1886–1983 Washington, D.C.), Gelatin silver print

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