American model, teacher and arts patron Harold Jackman was BOTD in 1901. Born in London, England to a West Indian mother, he was raised in Harlem, New York City. He attended school in the Bronx with future writer Countee Cullen, who became his lifelong friend. He studied at New York University and Columbia University, working part-time as a model and helping establish the Harlem Experimental Theatre. After graduating, he worked as a high school social studies. An active participant in the Harlem Renaissance, he befriended many of the key figures of the movement, notably Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman, W. E. B. Du Bois, Gladys Bentley and Carl Van Vechten, who photographed him several times. He was thought to be the model for the protagonist of Nigger Heaven, Van Vechten’s controversial and exoticised account of the Harlem Renaissance. Handsome, charismatic and conspicuously single, Jackmna discreetly navigated Harlem’s gay community, making frequent trips to Europe where he is thought to have had an affair with Paris-based expatriate writer Édouard Roditi. He was best known for his close friendship with Cullen, introducing him to his future wife Yolande Du Bois and acting as best man at their 1928 wedding. Two months later, the unhappily gay Cullen confessed his sexuality to Du Bois, and left for Paris with Jackman, prompting widespread rumours that they were lovers. Jackman worked in the New York public school system until his death in 1961, aged 59. A notable collector of African American artefacts, his collection was donated posthumously to Tulane University in New Orleans and Atlanta University in Georgia.