Jennie Louise Touissant Welcome (January 10, 1885 – July 22, 1956), born Jennie Louise Van Der Zee and also known as Madame E. Toussaint Welcome, was an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

visual artist who made influential photographs and films with her husband. She is associated with the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...

. Van Der Zee, who referred to herself as "the foremost female artist of the race," is recognized as being one of the only African American women filmmakers from the silent film industry. She and her husband, Ernest Touissant Welcome, established their own art school, photographic studio, and film production business. They produced films and paintings of African American soldiers of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The film, a 12-part documentary, was titled '' Doing Their Bit''.

Early life

Van Der Zee was born in

Lenox, Massachusetts Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. The town is based in Western Massachusetts and part of the Pittsfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,095 at the 2020 census. Lenox is the site of Shakespeare & Company and T ...

, to John Van Der Zee and Susan Brister. Before moving to Lenox, Massachusetts, her parents were maid and butler in New York to President

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

. Jennie attended Lenox High School and took private lessons in art and music in

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfield� ...

. Early in the 20th century, she moved to New York with her father and brothers (one of whom,

James Van Der Zee James Augustus Van Der Zee (June 29, 1886 – May 15, 1983) was an American photographer best known for his portraits of black New Yorkers. He was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Aside from the artistic merits of his work, Van Der Ze ...

, became a photographer). She married Ernest Touissant Welcome, an inventor and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

, on January 10, 1910, and they moved into in a brownstone in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where they established the Touissant Conservatory of Art and Music. The first ad for the conservatory appeared in the first issue of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

's journal ''

The Crisis ''The Crisis'' is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Mi ...

''. Van Der Zee stood out during her time because she was the African American owner of a business in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

Photography and filmmaking

The couple made films and pictures that recognized African American contributions to War World I. Under the banner of the Touissant Motion Picture Exchange, they made ''Doing Their Bit'' in 1918. Between 1917 and 1918, The Touissant Pictorial Company published ''A Pictorial History of the Negro in the Great War,'' a memorial book that featured Jennie's work. It also included pictures from governmental sources and a few uncredited photos. Several libraries have the book.https://www.worldcat.org/title/pictorial-history-of-the-negro-in-the-great-world-war-1917-1918/oclc/1259788 The Touissant Pictorial Company published one million patriotic postcards of African American soldiers. After the war ended, the War Savings Stamp Committee accepted Van Der Zee's painting, ''Charge of the Colored Divisions,'' for use as a poster. Van Der Zee and her husband copyrighted the work in August 1918. No physical copies are known to exist.

Death

Van Der Zee died in 1956.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Welcome, Madame E. Toussant Harlem Renaissance African-American film directors American women film directors Women film pioneers Film directors from Massachusetts 1885 births 1956 deaths People from Lenox, Massachusetts 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women