Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Eric K. Washington is a New York City-based independent historian and author of Boss of the Grips: The Life of James H. Williams and the Red Caps of Grand Central Terminal (Liveright/W.W. Norton), a biography of a once influential Harlem Renaissance-era labor figure. His book was honored as winner of the Herbert H. Lehman Prize, winner of the GANYC Apple Award and finalist for the Brendan Gill Prize. It was also cited among Open Letters Review 's 10 Best Biographies of 2019, and The Bowery Boys Podcast's 10 Favorite Books of 2019.
Mr. Washington is an A'Lelia Bundles Community Scholar of Columbia University 2014-2017, a CUNY Leon Levy Center for Biography Fellow 2015-2016, and a Fellow in Residence of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston/Brown Foundation's Dora Maar House in Ménerbes, France, 2017. His member affiliations include the American Historical Association (AHA), the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the Organization of American Historians (OAH) and the NYU Biography Seminar. I'm currently on the board of directors of the Biographers International Organization (BIO), and on New York City's Archives, Reference and Research Advisory Board (ARRAB).
The locale of Eric Washington's first book, Manhattanville: Old Heart of West Harlem (Arcadia), inspired his interpretive signage in West Harlem Piers Park, a design project awarded the 2010 MASterworks Award from the Municipal Art Society of New York.
Washington is owner of Tagging-the-Past, which endeavors to reconnect forgotten history to present landscapes through articles, talks and tours.
Eric K. Washington is a New York City-based independent historian and author of Boss of the Grips: The Life of James H. Williams and the Red Caps of Grand Central Terminal (Liveright/W.W. Norton), a biography of a once influential Harlem Renaissance-era labor figure. His book was honored as winner of the Herbert H. Lehman Prize, winner of the GANYC Apple Award and finalist for the Brendan Gill Prize. It was also cited among Open Letters Review 's 10 Best Biographies of 2019, and The Bowery Boys Podcast's 10 Favorite Books of 2019.
Mr. Washington is an A'Lelia Bundles Community Scholar of Columbia University 2014-2017, a CUNY Leon Levy Center for Biography Fellow 2015-2016, and a Fellow in Residence of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston/Brown Foundation's Dora Maar House in Ménerbes, France, 2017. His member affiliations include the American Historical Association (AHA), the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the Organization of American Historians (OAH) and the NYU Biography Seminar. I'm currently on the board of directors of the Biographers International Organization (BIO), and on New York City's Archives, Reference and Research Advisory Board (ARRAB).
The locale of Eric Washington's first book, Manhattanville: Old Heart of West Harlem (Arcadia), inspired his interpretive signage in West Harlem Piers Park, a design project awarded the 2010 MASterworks Award from the Municipal Art Society of New York.
Washington is owner of Tagging-the-Past, which endeavors to reconnect forgotten history to present landscapes through articles, talks and tours.
