[Photo lot of African-American spiritual leader Father Divine.]

Harlem, NY; Rhode Island, and other locales: 1936–1946. 20 press photos (6.5” x 6” to 10” x 7.5”, plus margins). Most images with caption labels on verso. 4 images captioned in the photograph.

An archive of press photos relating to the charismatic and controversial spiritual leader Father Divine.

Father Divine (1877–1965), also known as Reverend M. J. Divine, was a prominent African-American spiritual leader from about 1907 until his death. Spanning a decade, these images offer an intimate glimpse into Father Divine’s extensive activities. One image, entitled “From Newport to Heavenly Fish Fry,” shows a white woman, Angela Kaufman, sitting next to Divine at a fish fry—Kaufman having turned her Newport, Rhode Island home over to him. A number of large homes are pictured in this lot, which were either loaned or sold to Divine and his followers (known as his “Angels”), including a New York estate located across from President Roosevelt’s Hyde Park home that was sold to Divine by one Howland Spencer (an anti-New Dealer who quipped, “Roosevelt is ruining the country with debts. Divine won’t permit debts”). Divine called all of these residences “Heaven”— pieces that made up his so-called “international utopia.” Two dinners at which Divine spoke are documented, including one in which he addresses a mixed-race audience and a banner behind him reads “righteousness, truth, justice.” One shot shows Divine driving in a parade through Harlem—a procession that saw 2,500 of his followers demonstrate “the work of Father Divine.” A handful of images show Divine with his wife Edna Rose Ritchings (originally of Montreal) posing for the camera; Ritchings married Divine when she was twenty-one, becoming “Mother Divine.” Other images document Divine’s following in Switzerland (where he apparently had up to 5000 adherents); a steamboat trip the Angels undertook; two women Swiss “Angels”; and Divine’s 2,000 followers making a pilgrimage from Harlem and entering the gates of Divine’s Peace Mission, some 1000 acres on which many of these pilgrims were expected to settle.

Many of the verso captions express skepticism of Divine, who is variously described as a “negro cult leader,” “The New York Harlem Evangelist who calls himself God,” and so on. A caption on the verso of one photo was written after Divine’s death in 1965: “Father Divine died last Sept. 10, but his wife and successor, Mother Divine, expects him to return to earth after a while, in bodily form.”

Allegedly born on a plantation in Georgia, Divine’s full self-given name was Rev. Major Jealous Divine. During the Great Depression, he founded the International Peace Mission movement, formulated its doctrine, and oversaw its growth from a small and predominantly black congregation into a multiracial and international church. He was a contemporary of other black religious leaders such as Daddy Grace, Charles Harrison Mason, Noble Drew Ali and James F. Jones (AKA Prophet Jones). Essentially claiming to be God, Divine made numerous gracious contributions to his followers’ economic independence and racial equality. Originally disregarded as a cult, the Peace Mission is now generally regarded as an antecedent of the Civil Rights Movement. Likewise, in the later twentieth century, Divine became increasingly recognized as an important social reformer.

REFERENCES: Melton, J. Gordon. Father Divine at britannica.com.

CONDITION: Good, light curling and wear, chipping and short tears to a few photos; four images ‘cropped’ with ink inscriptions.