If you enjoy looking at photographs, and Cleveland history, you'll
want to attend this exhibit opening.

Charles Burkett

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Deuteronomy 8:3 Cafe Books & Music presents
Once When We Were Strong!
William H. Jordan Photographic Exhibit
of Ohio Prince Hall Masons & Eastern Stars

Opening commentary & discussion with
Norman and Brucella Wiggins Jordan
Director and Curator of the African American
Heritage Family Tree Museum

Saturday, May 12, 2007 ~ 4 - 6 p.m.

On Saturday, May 12, 2007 beginning at 4:00 p.m., Deuteronomy 8:3 will
host a reception and discussion on the William H. Jordan photographic
collection. An exhibit featuring photographs and memorabilia from Mr.
Jordan's early, active years with Ohio's Masonic Orders will open in
the enclosed dinning room. His grandson, Norman H. Jordan, will
provide commentary, and lead a discussion of the collection. Norman
will be joined by his wife, Dr. Brucella Wiggins Jordan, who serves as
curator of the William H. Jordan Collection of the African American
Family Tree Museum. Also in attendance will be William Jordan's
daughter, an award winning photographer, Christine Jordan Morrow.

For over fifty years, William H. Jordan owned and operated Jordan's
Studio in Cleveland's Fairfax area: first at 4202 Central Avenue,
then 2348 East 34th Street, and finally 2125 East 90th Street, a
parcel now part of the Cleveland Clinic Emergency Room parking lot.
In fact, each of Mr. Jordan's relocation's were based on projects
involving "urban renewal," or what he referred to as "urban removal."
These locations represent areas where African-Americans settled in
Cleveland and grew into highly concentrated populations as a result of
migratory forces in the early to mid twentieth century.

William H. Jordan was born in Black Hawk Hollow, Kanawha County, West
Virginia on September 19, 1886. His parents were Henry Jordan and
Sarah Brooks-Jordan. The family later moved to Fayette County, living
first in the Hawks Nest area and later in Ansted, where William was
employed as a coal miner. Following the death of his first wife Jordan
left West Virginia, moving first to Michigan, then later to Cleveland,
Ohio in 1916 where he became a construction worker. He remained in
that occupation until 1922 when an accident during the construction of
Cleveland's Public Auditorium caused the loss of both of his legs, and
one eye. After a period of recuperation and adjustment he used money
from Workmen's Compensation to study photography and business. The
earliest photographs in the collection are dated 1921, and it is
approximately from this time that Jordan became a major portrait
photogrpaher in Cleveland's African American community until his death
in 1976.

Keeping in order with the African American Social dictates of the
early twentieth century, Mr. Jordan was very active in religious and
fraternal organizations. He was a founding member of the Willliam T.
Boyd Masonic Lodge No. 79 in 1917. He was also active in the Western
Reserve Lodge No. 42 of the Knights of Pythias, serving as foreign
correspondent. In 1947 he became the first managing editor of the
Voice of Omar, the official organ of the Order of Knights of Omar.

While he did not let the loss of his legs stump his professional and
social growth, it did restrict the majority of his photographic work
to his studio. Many of the photographs in this particular exhibit
were taken of Masonic events and parades using a Brownie "snap shot"
camera, and are not reflective of the quality of his studio work.

The William Harvey Jordan collection contains over 1,000 negatives and
photographs, as well as Mr. Jordan's personal diaries and other
documents, and various two and three dimensional artifacts. Selected
pieces from the collection are the primary component of the permanent
exhibit of the African American Heritage Family Tree Museum in Ansted,
West Virginia, including hi Krona View 8x10 Studio and camera stand,
and posing stool.

Poet, playwright and historian Norman H. Jordan is the founder and
director the African American Heritage Family Tree Museum. The former
Clevelander, United Nations and Harriett Ells Fellow, and Karamu House
Writer-in-Residence is extensively published, including books of
poetry form his own collection, and in anthologies celebrating the
works of artistic black voices from throughout the twentieth century.
Mr. Jordan holds a Master of Arts in History, with a focus on African
American Studies, from the Ohio State University, and has taught the
subject at the collegiate level. Along with his wife, Brucella
Wiggins Jordan, PhD, Norman travels throughout the state of West
Virginia and beyond, providing presentations and portrayals of
significant historic figures including Carter G. Woodson, Ida Wells
and Ruth Spencer. In addition to her work as curator for the AAFT
Museum, Dr. Jordan teaches history at the historically black Lane
College in Jackson, Tennessee. She held the distinction of the W.E.B.
DuBois Fellow at West Virginia University where she earned her
doctorate in History.

Deuteronomy 8:3 occupies the ground floor of the Medical Associates
Building located at 1464 East 105 Street, between Ashbury and Wade
Park Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, 44106. Our routine business hours are:
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Wednesdays and
Saturdays 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call (216) 376-9695,
or email us at Deuteronomy8Cafe@....