Wayback RVA — Main Office of the Negro Development and Exposition Co. U. S. A.

Main Office of the Negro Development
and Exposition Co. U. S. A.
also Clothing and Gents Furnishings
Mr. I. J. Miller, Proprietor
528 East Broad Street

Just down the street from Richmond Dyeing, Scouring and Carpet Cleaning Works!

Giles Beecher Jackson was the first black attorney certified to practice law before the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. With Daniel Webster Davis he co-authored a book entitled The Industrial History of the Negro Race of the United States, where he mentions I. J. Miller gent’s furnishing store, with a stock of $10,000.

He also created the Negro Development and Exposition Company, which secured $150,000 to produce the Negro Building, exhibitions by and about blacks, for the 1907 Jamestown Tercentennial. That he was unsuccessful in converting this into a National Museum for Colored People, it was nevertheless one of the earliest attempts for a dedicated museum of this kind. An amazing story you can read here.

• Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 3.
• Souvenir Views Negro Enterprises and Residences, Richmond, Va. D. A. Ferguson & Co. 1907.
• An Early Attempt to Build a “National Museum for Colored People”. Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. September 2016.
• 528 East Broad Street.

(Main Office of the Negro Development and Exposition Co. U. S. A. is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)