By Jeremy K. Simien       

       It’s been said that collecting is a sickness and that a great collector will never stop collecting. I don’t know why, but I’ve always collected things. It started with fossilized rocks on the gravel playground at school, and it continued with other miscellaneous school yard obsessions, some now too embarrassing to admit. Although I will share that at the age of eleven, I was quite serious about finding rare Beanie Babies. No matter the age, I always enjoyed finding and collecting things. In my late teens and twenties I graduated to collecting vintage timepieces. This was considered an odd hobby at the time. Nowadays, most people have seen at least a few articles in a lifestyle magazine, or maybe even in The New York Times paper, talking about rare watches. However, in the early 2000’s, it was much more niche and the only people talking about vintage watches were on Internet watch forums. The world hadn’t quite tuned in yet. By 2008, Forbes magazine decided to dip their foot in the water and wrote an article on vintage watches and the obsessed collectors. I was pleasantly surprised to see my screen-name in their article! In the past, no matter what I collected, I was always able to keep a lid on my collecting and collection. I understood that these objects were simply things. While I enjoyed finding them and sometimes marveling over facets of the items, they were never anything more than things. Over the years, I was fortunate enough to meet some very well respected collectors. The range of their collections spanned from rare timepieces to priceless works of art by some of the greats. I learned quickly that the world of collecting was filled with eccentricities. The collectors are diverse and one can rarely tell what a person collects simply by looking at them. A person dressed in a fine bespoke business suit or designer dress may only collect cat refrigerator magnets, and a guy or gal in sweatpants may be a timepiece collector wearing one of their hundred thousand dollar wristwatches. No matter the obsession or the budgets of the collectors, one thing that always stuck out to me was that the items which they collected were not just objects to them, but instead something more. More than just what I saw them as, things. Interesting things, but just things. While, I am not interested in analyzing or passing judgement on some of the amazing people that I’ve met, I have often wondered and asked a question. What drives a collector to collect? After years of deliberation I’m not sure if there is a simple answer to this. However, I feel that the drive behind finding amazing objects, whether it be 19^th century portraits of Free people of African descent, or any other object, is the fundamental desire to find “lost” objects and put them in their proper place. The reason why collectors choose to do this is more complicated and, I suppose, more personal.

        My personal desire to find and collect portraits of Free people of African descent/Creoles of color is simple. I feel that these pieces act as a crucial visual cue for a story and a message that must be told. The story of the so-called “Free People of Color” goes well beyond my personal family history and any narcissistic need for ancestral gratification. The desire to share and spread this story comes from my need to present a narrative that offers encouragement to not only people of African descent, but also other marginalized groups and persons. The narrative that I hope to present will hopefully be a message of resistance, persistence, and survival. This message will assist in the dis-mantling of ideas that people of African descent have always been immobile in the Americas and have ever been comfortable in a perpetual state of slavery, whether mental or literal. I hope that the portraits that I have assembled will illuminate the pathway and validate the notion that despite the fact that people of African descent were victimized, they refused to remain victims. We are and have always been an entity that has introduced, influenced and inspired. No matter our disposition, we were always able to not only survive, but thrive.

       While we had help along the way, many of our achievements were ours alone. The story of Louisiana Creoles is not complete without acknowledging some of the brave people of European ancestry. There were many in antebellum Louisiana who willingly ran the risk of being publicly ostracized and ousted by polite society for their relationships with the Gens De Couleur Libre. Whether simply financial or romantic, there were examples of people fighting for what they knew to be right. These people felt that slavery was wrong and were optimistic that it would not be a permanent condition. Some of these people attempted to alleviate the burden of slavery by emancipation.

       While I do not enjoy walking into stuffy Auction houses to participate in sometimes heated bidding for objects, nor do I enjoy getting on planes to travel to strange places to collect material culture relating to Free People of color, my commitment and an inherent trait within commands me to do so. For the first time, I am certain that I am not collecting things. I am assembling a collection that will educate and inspire people and lives.  My collecting will be a continued effort. I imagine for as long as I have the ability to collect, I will. I hope that the pieces that I’ve assembled will continue to inspire others years after I am gone. I told someone recently that I do not believe we collectors ever truly own these antique objects, we merely act as guardians of them.

         Below are some of my favorite pieces that I have found. Some were found as far away as France and some were discovered too close to be found by accident. I attribute much of my success in finding these relics to my Catholic faith (I am by no means a perfect Catholic, however, the faith resonates in me and I believe in my heart the teachings to be true), and also in my veneration of Saint Anthony of Padua. I was always told to pray to Saint Anthony for the return of lost items. These items were certainly lost and I believe it was a combination of my tireless searching of the Internet, auction catalogs and poking my nose around with the assistance of Saint Anthony that I was able to recover depictions of our exiled people. I can not tell you how many of these seemingly fell from the sky. The perceived coincidences and luck of this all can only be attributable to spiritual intervention. See below my 19^th century French medal of Saint Anthony found in St. Louis, Missouri. Many Creole scholars know of the unique connection St. Louis and New Orleans share. Many of our people and the material culture ended up in St. Louis before being displaced to wherever it now resides.      

Below: 1. An 1856 oil on canvas of a “Femme de Couleur libre.” 2. A circa 1860 CDV photograph of a woman of African descent taken by Washburn, a New Orleans photographer.  3. “Portrait of a young girl” by  Free Man of Color, Julien Hudson 1811-1844 signed J.H 1828. 4. An 1850s Ambrotype of a “Femme de Couleur libre.” 5. An envelope addressed to Florville Foy, The New Orleans Free man of color Artisan and Marble Sculpture. 6. Last but not least, My good luck charm! A 19th century French medal of St. Anthony.