Helen Armstead-Johnson photograph collection
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Abstract
The Helen Armstead-Johnson Photograph Collection consists of over 15,000 photographs, prints, postcards and transparencies, which document the contributions of African-Americans to the performing arts, both in the United States and abroad. The collection which dates from the nineteenth century to the 1990s documents the work of actors, dancers, musicians, singers and comedians as well as playwrights, composers, songwriters, producers, directors and choreographers. There are also a handful of images of African-American circus performers that may be found mainly in the Ulysses S. "Kid" Thompson collection and also in the files of a few of the other entertainers.
The collection consists of studio and publicity portraits of individual entertainers; motion picture, television stills and theater scenes of performances by African-Americans; personal collections of individual entertainers which were donated to the Armstead-Johnson Foundation for Black Theater Research; and a collection of over 1,000 postcards, which includes a rare group of pre-1915 postcard portraits of African-American performers, produced in Europe.
Dates / Origin
Date created: 1890
Library locations
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division
Shelf locator: Sc Photo Helen Armstead-Johnson Photograph Collection