Powell the Natty Dresser: Wearing a white turtle neck shirt and a medallion hanging from a chain, former Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell sips vodka and ginger ale as he answers questions while sitting in the cabin of his 40-foot boat "Adam's Fancy" in Bimini, Bahamas.

Adam Clayton Powell (1908-1972) was a Baptist pastor and an American politician who represented Harlem in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was the first person of black descent to be elected to Congress from New York. Re-elected for nearly three decades, Powell became a powerful national politician of the Democratic Party. He served as a national spokesman on Civil Rights and social issues. In 1961, Powell became Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, the most powerful position held by a black person in Congress. He supported the passage of important social and Civil Rights legislation under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

On recto: typewritten title and date. On verso: date stamp.

Donated to the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College by Eric Alterman on December 16, 2021.

Sheet: 6 15 /16 x 9

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

This object has the following keywords:

• Adam Clayton Powell
• Bimini
• Boats
• Civil Rights Movements
• Drinking
• Injustice
• Racial Discrimination

• Image Dimensions: 5 7/8 x 8 3/8 in. (14.92 x 21.27 cm)