Joseph Rollins, Sr. and Charlemae Rollins Collection Artifacts
Finding Aid: Joseph Rollins, Sr. and Charlemae Rollins Collection Artifacts
Repository:
The DuSable Museum of African American History
 | Maker: Charlemae Hill Rollins and National Council of Teachers of English Owner: public domain OR Joseph Rollins, Jr. Note: Collection of the DuSable Museum of African American History |
 | Joseph Rollins in his Military Order of the Cootie uniform, ca. 1975. Joseph Rollins, Sr., served in the rank of Sergeant Major with the 356th Infantry, 92nd Division in France and Germany from 1918-1919. Joseph was active in local veterans' organizations. He was a charter member of the Major Charles L. Hunt Post No. 2024 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and a founder of the Monkey Mountain Pup Tent No. 20 of the Military Order of the Cootie, a fraternal organization which describes itself as the 'honor degree' of the VFW. Monkey Mountain Pup Tent No. 20 was the first African American Pup Tent in the United States. The collection includes substantial ephemera and some records of Rollins's activities in both the Charles L. Hunt Post no. 2024 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Monkey Mountain Pup Tent No. 20 of the Military Order of the Cootie. Note: Collection of the DuSable Museum of African American History |
 | The Rollins collection includes papers and photographs from Charlemae Rollins's mother Birdie Tucker Hill, who taught in the public schools in Yazoo City, Mississippi and later Beggs, Oklahoma, where the Rollins family migrated when Charlemae Rollins was still a young child. Oklahoma schools were racially segregated, and Birdie Hill was probably a member of the statewide Oklahoma Association of Negro Teachers. Maker: State of Oklahoma Owner: public domain Note: Collection of the DuSable Museum of African American History |
 | The Rollins Collection includes over 300 photographs, including several dozen photographs of Joseph Rollins's veteran activities ranging in date from the 1930s to the 1980s. This photograph of the founding members of Monkey Mountain Pup Tent no. 20, with Joseph Rollins in the center of the front row, was taken in 1938. Maker: Gushiniere Studio Owner: Gushiniere Studio Note: Collection of the DuSable Museum of African American History |
 | Among the 300 photographs in the Rollins collection are a number of photographs of the Rollinses at home in Chicago and with friends around the city. A young Joseph Rollins is in the front row, second from the left, in this photograph, dated 1941. Maker: Taylor Photography Owner: Taylor Photography Note: Collection of the DuSable Museum of African American History |