Lectern used by Reverend Dr. Clay Evans at Fellowship Baptist Church: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This is a wooden lectern originally used by Reverend Clay Evans. It has three sides, two that face the audience and the third that the speaker stands behind. The two audience-facing sides are solid panels of dark wood. Near the top edge of each of these two panels is text carved into the wood and painted with gold paint. The text reads from left-hand panel to right [“IT IS NO SECRET / WHAT GOD CAN DO.] The two panels do not reach all the way to the floor. Instead, there are an additional two smaller lengths of the same polished dark wood that form a triangular-shaped base for the main body of the lectern to rest on. The third side of the lectern is open and has four shelves of various heights. The top shelf forms the desk on which to rest papers during a speech. This top surface is covered by blue fabric. Just under the lip of this top surface on the right-hand side are two metal switch plates. Two thick rubber covered wires emerge from under the lectern on the right-hand side.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1973
• Commissioned by: Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, American, founded 1950
• Used by: Reverend Clay Evans, American, 1925 - 2019
• Type: lecterns
• Medium: wood with cloth, chrome, and electrical wiring
• Dimensions: H x W x D (pulpit): 50 × 59 1/2 × 26 in. (127 × 151.1 × 66 cm)
• Place used: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Baptist
• Topic: Civil Rights
• Topic: Communities
• Topic: Gospel (Music)
• Topic: Preaching
• Topic: Religion
• Topic: Singers (Musicians)
• Object number: 2021.109.1
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Rev. Clay Evans
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: No known copyright restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.