Blockson 88: “The Jubilee Singers from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, travelled throughout the United States and Europe. They were received by Queen Victoria and... Read More
An exceptional copy. A book in any edition almost always found well-handled and worn, the present copy is a lovely, almost untouched, example. Of note... Read More
Documentary evidence of the rebellious and outspoken Paul Robeson; a man not just known for his extraordinary voice, but for his activist roots in American... Read More
Introduction by Archibald Rutledge. With photographs by Carl Julien. Photos and poems that document the songs and daily life of the “gullah Negroes” of South... Read More
![Spring Frolic presented by Colored Choral Society ... West Chester High School Auditorium… [opening lines of program]. William Palmer Lear, Miss Julia Gilbert.](/pictures/thumb/3727842_1.jpg?v=1541628071)
Rare; unrecorded. Music program for this Chester County African American choral society, heavily in the balance of female members. The music choices are interesting, in... Read More
Concert program of classical music and Negro Spirituals given by baritone Paul Robeson (1898–1976), celebrated actor, singer, and civil rights activist. The concert was performed... Read More
Title continues: “Records of Negro and Indian Graduates and ex-Students With historical and personal sketches and testimony on important race questions from within and without... Read More
Story, mission, progress, and multiple descriptions and viewpoints of life at the Hampton Institute for African-Americans and native Americans; this title published almost a decade... Read More
Story, mission, progress, and multiple descriptions and viewpoints of life at the Hampton Institute for African-Americans and native Americans; this title published almost a decade... Read More
![I’ll Come Sailing Home to You. [Hawaii; King Kalakaua]. lyrics Ruth Florence, Johnny Noble, music King Kalakaua, 1892–1944, 1836–1891.](/pictures/thumb/3727825_1.jpg?v=1540930806)
Sheet music for Ruth Florence’s I’ll Come Sailing Home to You with music for piano and ukulele by King Kalakaua and Johnny Noble, both honorees... Read More
![[Cotton Blossom Singers of the Piney Woods School in Mississippi]. Laurence C. Jones, 1882–1975, The Cotton Blossom Singers, Piney Woods School.](/pictures/thumb/3727789_1.jpg?v=1542124820)
C.1950s Musical concert program broadsheet for the all-girl “The Cotton Blossom Singers” of Piney Woods School, an historically black boarding school in Mendenhall, Mississippi. The... Read More
![[Collection of 18th Century Secular French Sheet Music bound up and kept by Philadelphian Samuel Breck]. Samuel Breck, 1771–1862.](/pictures/thumb/146343_1.jpg?v=1539123806)
Sixty-four individual musical compositions. A bound volume of eighteenth-century French sheet music for contra dance, guitar, etc. collected by Samuel Breck (1771–1862), noted Philadelphia merchant... Read More
![[Important Thomas Alva Edison Manuscript Laboratory Note]. “Edison”, 1847–1931, Thomas Alva Edison.](/pictures/thumb/3727757_1.jpg?v=1537910632)
1920 Laboratory note by Thomas Edison, inventor of the phonograph, concerning moulds for his company’s proprietary “Edison Disc Phonograph” records. Here in his own hand... Read More
Minstrel stage history exploring the origins of black American minstrelsy; early minstrel shows, their prosperity and decline; their techniques. The concluding chapter is given to... Read More
![Deep River: An Interpretation of Negro Spirituals. [Autographed]. Howard Thurman.](/pictures/thumb/3727331_1.jpg?v=1540325161)
Autographed by the author on the title page. California: Eucalyptus Press, Mills College, 1945. 39pp. First Edition. Slim blue hardcover without dust jacket. Binding with... Read More
Subtitle: “King of the Twelve-String Guitar Players of the World, Long-Time Convict in the Penitentiaries of Texas and Louisiana.” The oral autobiography of Huddie Ledbetter... Read More
Work: “This volume contains over 250 selections. Includes a chapter which gives special attention to the music for the songs, and a chapter on the... Read More
Talley, an African American professor at Fisk University, presents an exhaustive compilation of black American folk rhymes followed by an almost one hundred-page scholarly interpretation... Read More
![Negro Slave Songs in the United States. [First Edition]. Miles Mark Fisher.](/pictures/thumb/3727285_1.jpg?v=1538433153)
First Edition, and a very pleasing copy, of Fisher’s study of the haunting melodies and swinging rhythms of African American slave songs and spirituals of... Read More
![You’ll Find Old Dixieland in France [sheet music]. lyrics Grant Clarke, music Geo. W. Meyer, French lyrics Louis Delamarre.](/pictures/thumb/3727075_1.jpg?v=1540246015)
Unusual small format sheet music celebrating African-American soldiers fighting in France in the First World War. With lyrics in both English and French, the song... Read More
Chinese-themed sheet music by popular songwriter Harold Weeks, composer of such songs as Hindustan and Kentucky Home. Weeks’ song Chong (He Come from Hong Kong)... Read More
![The Opportunity You Have Been Waiting For ... From Gipsy Camp to Pulpit ... Gipsy Simon Smith [opening lines of broadside]. Gipsy Simon Smith.](/pictures/thumb/3727498_1.jpg?v=1534977058)
Smiling Methodist evangelist Gipsy Simon Smith (1875–1943) looks out benevolently from this tall narrow broadside which advertises a performance to hear him give the good... Read More
![[First Performance in England of Beethoven’s Grand Mass, in D. Op. 123. December 24, 1832]. Sec. to the Queen Square Concerts A. Grimal, 1770–1827, Ludwig van Beethoven.](/pictures/thumb/3727394_1.jpg?v=1535491772)
Exceedingly rare program for the first English performance of Beethoven’s Grand Mass in D or Missa solemnis. The concert was given in London on Christmas... Read More
![[1842–1917 Combination Bound Volume of Masonic, Musical, and Theatrical Programs and Scrapbook kept by Musician Albert Ritter of Reading, Pennsylvania]. Albert Ritter, c.1838–1915.](/pictures/thumb/3727221_1.jpg?v=1534362500)
For Christmas 1873, musician Albert Ritter of Reading, Pennsylvania was given a scrapbook. He immediately began to fill it with ephemera from the various fraternal... Read More
Exhaustive study of Daniel Decatur Emmett, banjoist, fiddler, singer, composer and lyricist, comedian and playwright. Nathan’s book combines musicology, biography, and history to situate Emmett’s... Read More
