James Allen is an American antique collector, known in particular for his collection of 145 photographs of lynchings in America

Lynching in the United States

Lynching, the practice of killing people by extrajudicial mob action, occurred in the United States chiefly from the late 18th century through the 1960s. Lynchings took place most frequently in the South from 1890 to the 1920s, with a peak in the annual toll in 1892.It is associated with...

, published in 2000 with Jon Lewis as Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America. The collection includes images of the lynching in 1911 of Laura and Lawrence Nelson

Lynching of Laura and Lawrence Nelson

Laura and Lawrence Nelson were African Americans who were lynched in Okemah, Oklahoma, on May 25, 1911.Laura, her husband, their 15-year-old son Lawrence, and their baby, were taken into custody after Lawrence shot and killed George Loney, Okemah's deputy sheriff. Loney and a posse had arrived at...

, in Okemah, Oklahoma, and of Leo Frank

Leo Frank

Leo Max Frank was a Jewish-American factory superintendent whose hanging in 1915 by a lynch mob of prominent citizens in Marietta, Georgia drew attention to antisemitism in the United States....

 in 1915 near Marietta, Georgia.

Background

Allen was raised in Winter Park, Florida, within an Irish-Catholic family of 11 brothers and sisters. In an interview for The Los Angeles Times in 2000, Allen said he didn't fit in, and was thrown out of the house at 18 when his father discovered he was gay. He developed a fascination for rare objects from a young age, and when he left home began to make a living as a "picker". Some of his objects are now housed by the Smithsonian

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

 and the High Museum of Art

High Museum of Art

The High Museum of Art , located in Atlanta, is the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States and one of the most-visited art museums in the world. Located on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district, the High is a division of the Woodruff Arts Center.-History:The Museum was...

in Atlanta.

Works

• Allen, James and Lewis, Jon. Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America. Twin Palms Publishers, 2000.

Further reading

• Allen James. Musarium: Without Sanctuary, accessed August 25, 2010.
• A brief film by Allen about his collection, accessed August 25, 2010.