Alonzo J. Aden


Alonzo J. Aden was an art historian and gallerist. He served as curator of “Hall of Negro Life” at the Texas Centennial Exposition, the first major Black arts and culture exhibit at a world's fair, and the American Negro Exposition in Chicago. Aden co-founded with James V. Herring the Barnett-Aden Gallery, one of the first Black-owned art galleries in the United States.

Early life and education

Alonzo “Lonnie” Aden was born on May 6, 1906, in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
He was the oldest son of Ephraim Aden, a hotelier, and Naomi Barnett, a school teacher. Aden had blonde hair until early adulthood and green eyes.
In 1920, Aden was sent to Washington, D.C., to live with his uncle, James Aden, a porter, and his wife Laura. After graduating from Armstrong High School, he attended Hampton Institute.
In June 1927, he wrote to W.E.B. DuBois to ask him for a job writing for The Crisis. That fall he started classes at Howard University, and enrolled in an art history class taught by James V. Herring. In 1933, Aden graduated from Howard with a bachelor's degree in education.

Personal life

Aden and Herring, who was 19 years older than Aden, were business and life partners. The pair lived together beginning in 1929, in a home on 2nd Street in Washington, DC. Beginning in 1933, Aden and Herring are listed as co-owners of a Randolph Street rowhouse, the site of the Barnett-Aden Gallery, although they did not move into their new home until 1934. The pair were stylish Washington, DC socialites, entertaining several times a week. Aden favored tailored suits, and Herring sported a cape and cane during winter months, and a white dinner jacket during the summer social season.
On October 13, 1961, Aden died after suffering an apparent heart attack at the home he shared with Herring.

Legacy

After Aden's death, the Barnett-Aden Gallery began to decline and slowly ceased its exhibitions schedule. Aden's partner, James Herring, died in 1969, and the gallery closed.
In 1989, a portion of the Barnett-Aden Collection, approximately 130 artworks, was sold for six million dollars to the Florida Endowment Fund for Higher Education. At the time, this was the largest recorded price for a Black art collection acquisition.
In 1998, Robert L. Johnson, founder of BET, purchased a lot from the Barnett-Aden Collection. In 2015, Johnson donated select works from the Collection to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
As a permanent legacy to Aden and Barnett, Cultural Tourism DC erected a Barnett Aden Gallery memorial marker on the African American Heritage Trail in Washington, DC.