In celebration of Black History Month, Ellis Library has an exhibit on Spencer T. Banks.
Banks was a commercial artist, illustrator and cartoonist who worked in St. Louis for over 50 years. He had his own studio and opened a company called Veteran’s Sign and Art Shop.
Aggie Toppins, associate professor and chair of design at Washington University in St. Louis, has been studying Banks and said his career was largely commercial.
“That means he painted signs for stores,” she said. “One of his earliest commissions was, he painted the heads of celebrities for the Amethyst Theatre, which opened in the early 30s,” Toppins said.
His work has been hard to find, Toppins said, but now is starting to resurface. The exhibit focuses on Banks’ connection with Black workers and business in St. Louis.
“He designed sets and the program for the Pine Street Y Circus, which was really an important event, particularly in Black community in St. Louis,” Toppins said. “That was a pretty ambitious thing to do. Doing that work back then was kind of (more) laborious than it is now.”
Joan Stack is the curator of the exhibit at the library and said that using Banks was a good way to discuss the historically important American workforce through the eyes of the artist.
“So my interest was to try to bring together a number of business that a particular artist, Spencer T. Banks, worked for and discuss Black labor in St. Louis in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s,” Stack said.
Banks did work for some very important Black business in the 1930s and ’40s.
“Homer Phillips’ hospital, he also worked for the Poro College, the Annie Molone Poro College. He did these wonderful images for their theatre,” Stack said. “He also worked for the Argus, a really famous Black newspaper in St. Louis. So, I thought this was a really interesting way learning about different Black business and how rich that community was during that period.”
Stack said she found out about Banks during last year’s exhibit, which highlighted Black artists and became interested in learning more about him. She feels that not enough people know about him, or have forgotten about him.
“He had so many connections to Black charities, to Black business, to white business as well, but he was a major figure in the cultural community during that time,” Stack said. “Sadly, not that many people know him. So I thought to introduce people to him. I feel like I got to know him through all this research. Mostly in the African American newspapers, the St. Louis Argus and The Saint Louis American. I found so much that hasn’t been published. I felt, well we gotta do this show.”
The fun part of the exhibit for Stack is showing off his comic strips.
“I organized showing off his comic strip because that was revolutionary,” Stack said. “He was probably the first American artist to do a cartoon that was published in a newspaper featuring a Black women as his heroine.”
Stack went on to describe the artists signature comic.
“He did this wonderful cartoon call Pokenia. It took place in this Black department store. Pokenia has all these wonderful adventures. And it’s based around this smart stylish Black woman. That is something special. Yes, Spencer T. Banks was special in a lot of ways,” Stack said. “But this was one of the ways he was groundbreaking.”
Stack even has a theory that the Pokenia looks like and based on Banks wife, Sara Richardson.
“She has that type of face, kind of a long face. In the 1930s he dated Richardson. They got married in 1940,” Stack said. “This (comic) comes out in ’39. I’m wondering if she is the inspiration for Pokenia. You wonder, he got this strong women in his life, very intelligent. Maybe this is a little bit of an homage to her?
Toppins has been studying and trying to find the influence Banks had on the Black community in St. Louis. She said it is significant to know just how much he worked with Black businesses and art.
“He taught classes at Washington Technical High School, but he had this business where he trained people to become commercial artists,” Toppins said. “African Americans didn’t always have access to training. By having this business where he took students and trained them to do this kind of work on the job would’ve been a very important influence.”
Toppins also mentioned Pokenia, and how it indicates a certain self expression.
“It’s so different than the way that this sorta of racist stereotypes would’ve been published in other news papers at the time. I think it’s empowering, but it also speaks of a time for this professional class of people,” Toppins said. “There lots of little jokes in it and it’s just totally different than the kinds of the negative depictions of African Americans,” Toppins said.
Stack said it’s important for the Black and white community to know about people like Banks.
“For the Black community, they are great role models for them to see and that they were really important, great artists that maybe you didn’t hear about because of racism,” Stack said. “But also for the white community and what wonderful contributions that were made…. so this is an opportunity for everyone to learn a little bit more about St. Louis history, about Missouri history and about American history.
The exhibit will remain open until May 18. Stack will give a talk on Spencer T. Banks at Ellis Library on Feb. 26 at noon.
