"Seasons Greetings" Calendar Issued by a Black Funeral Home (1943)

Williams & McNabb Mortuary

[AFRICAN-AMERICANA / FUNERAL HOME / MORTUARY]. 1943 Calendar ("Season's Greetings")

Columbus, Ohio: Williams & McNabb Mortuary, 1942. Backing board printed in black and silver (400 x 257 mm; browned, chipped around edges with significant loss, verso with multiple pieces of transparent tape) to which is affixed a color-printed illustration (227 x 175 mm) of a woman (smiling) holding a small girl; stapled is a small 12-month 1943 calendar, the first page (for December 12) is printed in black and silver (short tear at the foot). Backing board in poor condition, the illustration with minor creasing. Item #4589

UNSETTLING JUXTAPOSITION OF LIFE AND DEATH IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AFRICAN AMERICA, A RELIC UNLIKE ANYTHING WE HAVE EVER SEEN, AND AN "IMPOSSIBLE" SURVIVAL, BEING A 1943 "SEASONS GREETINGS" CALENDAR ISSUED BY THE BLACK OWNED WILLIAMS & McNABB MORTUARY IN COLUMBUS, OHIO. BY JANUARY 1944 THIS CALENDAR WOULD HAVE BEEN RENDERED PERMANENTLY OBSOLETE. WE ARE UNABLE TO SPECULATE ON WHY IT SURVIVED, OR IF ANY OTHER EXAMPLES EXIST.

In the early 1900s most communities in the United States still had no Black funeral homes. Prior to this, Black families who wanted their deceased relatives embalmed were forced to use back doors and basement entrances of white mortuaries. Even in death, the color line was a persistent line of demarcation, but once established, Black funeral homes became vital pillars of Black communities, serving as economic anchors and social gathering spots during the Jim Crow era.

During the 1940s, African American funeral homes in Columbus, Ohio, were concentrated along the East Long Street corridor -- as here. These establishments acted as vital civic institutions, offering dignified care in a segregated era and serving as community centers for the Black population.

Williams & McNabb Mortuary (later known simply as McNabb Funeral Home) was a prominent African American funeral business located at 818 E Long Street in the heart of Columbus's historic Black commercial district. It operated out of the Adelphi Building, originally in 1927 for the Adelphi Building, Loan and Savings Company (the first African American-owned bank in Columbus). The Williams & McNabb Mortuary eventually took over the building in the 1940s, growing into a community staple through the 1950s up to the 70s. The Adelphi Building was demolished in 2019; on the site now stands a block of apartments.

See: Karla F.C. Holloway, Passed On: African American Mourning Stories, A Memorial (2002), passim.

Price: $450.00