Fredi Washington photograph collection

Abstract

The Fredi Washington Photograph Collection depicts some aspects of her personal life and her career as a dancer, actress and activist, from the late 1910s to the 1950s.The collection consists of individual and group studio portraits and candid shots of Washington, some members of her family, and some of her friends; publicity stills from some of her stage and movie performances; and studio portraits, many inscribed, of her friends and colleagues from dance, music, stage, and film. The collection does not contain any images of her early personal life, any professional activities after the 1940s, or personal photographs after the early 1950s. Personal photographs include a studio portrait of Washington taken just prior to her starting in show business (1919); a drawing of Washington in dance costume (1927); Washington and a group of friends on the beach at Coney Island, New York (ca. 1930s); snapshots of Lawrence Brown, Washington's first husband, posing with his car (ca. 1930s); Brown in a group portrait of Les Hite's band, which includes Lionel Hampton on drums (1930-1932); a portrait of Washington and her sister, Isabel Washington Powell (ca. 1940s); portraits of Isabel and her husband, Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (1941); Washington and her second husband, Anthony Hugh Bell, celebrating their wedding (1952); and a series of contact sheets, depicting Fredi and Hugh Bell at home, in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, for a magazine profile (ca. 1953). Images of Washington's professional career as dancer, actress and activist include a view of Washington in the chorus line at Club Alabam', New York (1924-1925); studio portraits of Washington and her dance partner, Al Moiret, with whom she toured Europe (1927-1928); Washington and actor Alston Burleigh in scenes from the play "Run, Little Chillun" (1933); movie stills from the film "Imitation of Life," featuring Washington, Louise Beavers, and two unidentified child actors (1934); at a Negro Actors Guild boat ride with dancer Wini Johnson and Dora White (1938); with Dorothy Maynor, Canada Lee, Fredric March and Hubert T. Delany, doing a Race Relations Sunday radio broadcast on WOR, New York (1943); and rehearsing with the cast of the play "Lysistrata" (1946). A large number of the studio portraits of Washington appear to be related to her dance or acting career; some may have been used for publicity purposes. A portion of the collection consists of individual and group studio portraits, many of which are inscribed to either Washington, Lawrence Brown, or both, depicting friends and colleagues in various fields of entertainment. Among these include Fletcher Henderson, Edna Thomas, the Nicholas Brothers, Willie Bryant, Claire Trevor, Elisabeth Welch, the dance team of Norton and Margot, Maude Russell and Mantan Moreland, Billy Rowe, and Earl Hines, among others. Also included are a number of images of Duke Ellington and his orchestra, of which Brown, a trombonist, was a member from 1932-1951.

Dates / Origin

Date issued: 1919

Library locations

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division

Shelf locator: Sc Photo Fredi Washington Collection