Two Promotional Cloth Banners For Henderson Travel Service, The First African America Owned Travel Service in America

[Atlanta]: Henderson Travel Service, 1973. Resist-dyed images printed on rough Batik-type cloth. 22 by 15.5 inches [56 by 39 cm]; 23 by 33 inches [58 by 83 cm]. Two banners picturing stylized elephants, zebras, gazelle, and a giraffe with the Henderson logo used in the early 1970s, with the slogan 'Does it All' on the larger example.

Fraying to edges, fold lines from storage with a few small moisture stains and a small tear to the bottom right of the larger banner at the giraffe's legs, else both are very good examples. An uncommon piece from a company that was flying African-American travelers overseas in an era where large parts of their own country were restricted from completely free travel.

It's not clear whether these were used as in-house advertisements or given away as souvenirs to clients, but they're the first we've seen. The Henderson Travel Service, started in Atlanta in 1955 by Jake and Freyde Henderson, is America's oldest full-service African-American owned travel agency. Henderson Travel Service began in 1955, and by 1957 they had booked their first trip for a client to travel to Ghana to celebrate the country's independence. Out of this grew a full-service agency booking trips for clients to travel abroad, including Martin Luther King's trip to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Today Henderson continues to book travel to Africa for many prominent professional and charitable organizations.