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Guide to the Sellers Family Papers
MS 71
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Table of contents
Title: Sellers family papers
Dates: circa 1890s-1994
Collection number: MS 71
Creator:
Sellers, Shirley Jean.
Collection Size:
2.25 linear feet
(2 boxes + 1 oversized box)
Repository:
African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)
Oakland, CA 94612
Abstract: The Sellers Family Papers includes photographs, certificates, graduation and funeral programs, scrapbooks, and newspaper clippings
that document the life and activities of members of the Sellers family. The bulk of the papers are family photographs of the
Sellers and Johnson families of Oakland, California, Los Angeles, California, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and are mostly
of family members posing at home, on vacation, or portraits between 1890-1930s.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.
Materials are for use in-library only, non-circulating.
Permission to publish from the Sellers Family Papers must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at Oakland.
Sellers family papers, MS 71, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California.
The Sellers Family Papers was donated by George Craig Jr. to the African American Museum & Library at Oakland on May 16, 1996.
Processed by Sean Heyliger, 10/09/2013.
Biography / Administrative History
John J. Sellers (1866-1928) was born in 1866 in Charlottesville, Virginia to John L. Sellers, a shoemaker, and Almira Sellers.
In 1893, John L. Sellers moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he worked as the head waiter for the Lutherer Catering Company
and had three children, Emmett, John Willis, and Tragene Sellers.
His middle son, John Willis Sellers (1907-1988), relocated to Oakland, California where he met and married Martha Lucille
Johnson (1914-1991), the daughter of Mattie Laura Ashby and Howard William Johnson of Los Angeles, California. John Willis
Sellers worked in the merchant marine and Martha Lucille worked as a nurse at Providence Hospital for over 30 years. Before
separating in 1943, they had one daughter, Shirley Jean Sellers (1938-1994), born on January 4, 1938 in Oakland, California.
After the separation, Martha Lucille Johnson met and married George A. Craig with whom she had a step-son, George A. Craig
Jr.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Sellers Family Papers includes photographs, certificates, graduation and funeral programs, scrapbooks, and newspaper clippings
that document the life and activities of members of the Sellers family. The bulk of the papers are family photographs of the
Sellers and Johnson families of Oakland, California, Los Angeles, California, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and are mostly
of family members posing at home, on vacation, or portraits between 1890-1930s. There are several photographs of Emmett Sellers
posing in his military uniform prior to reporting for duty for World War I, group photographs of John J. Sellers and John
Willis Sellers with other Pullman car porters, and a photograph album documenting the family attending the Golden Gate International
Exposition.
The papers also include biographical and educational material on various members of the Sellers and Johnson families. The
Shirley Jean Sellers series includes three baby scrapbooks, junior and high school diplomas and graduation programs, and her
birth certificate and funeral program. The Martha Lucille Johnson (Sellers/Craig) series includes her junior and high school
diplomas, newspaper clippings and judgment of her divorce from John Willis Sellers, and her funeral program.
The John Willis Sellers series includes a monogrammed leather money pouch, his father’s obituary, and a copy of his death
certificate. In the George Craig Jr. series there are traffic reserve certificates, an address book, and agreement with Edward
O. Ballard, private investigator. An assorted series includes a Mother’s Day card for Marguerite Adams, hospital bathing
instructions for a newborn baby, and two postcards of a downtown park and an aerial view of a house from the 1950s.
Series I. Photographs
Series II. Shirley Jean Sellers
Series III. Martha Lucille Johnson (Sellers) (Craig)
Series IV. John Willis Sellers
Series V. George Craig Jr.
Series VI. Assorted
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Sellers family.
Johnson family.
Craig family.
World War, 1914-1918--African Americans.
Pullman Company--Employees.
Oakland (Calif.)-Social life and customs.
African American families--California.
African American families--sources.
African Americans--California--East Bay--History.
Golden Gate International Exposition (1939-1940 : San Francisco, Calif.)--History--Pictorial works.