The Minstrel Show Collection, 1831-1959 (bulk 1860-1940), contains 4,000 items
documenting the form of entertainment known as the minstrel show and, to a much
lesser extent, other entertainments that used blackface makeup. Minstrel shows
featured white Americans appearing in blackface in a three-part show, performing
what were billed as
The bulk of the collection documents individual performers and minstrel show companies, including touring companies. It is organized into six series: I. Minstrel Show Companies and Performers, 1831-1959 (31 boxes, 42 oversize folders), II. Playbills and Programs, 1847-1914 (1.5 boxes, 10 oversize folders), III. Scrapbooks, 1835-1927 (4 boxes), IV. Printed Music, 1834-1934 (7.5 boxes, 1 oversize folder), V. Songsters, Jokesters, and Miscellaneous Booklets, 1833-1908 (6 boxes), and VI. Miscellaneous, 1858-1931 (3.5 boxes, 1 oversize folder).
The Companies and Performers series, 1831-1959, comprises the bulk of the collection
and contains photographs, prints, letters, sheet music, clippings, programs,
playbills, scrapbook leaves, and a small number of tintypes for over 700 minstrel
show companies and performers, arranged alphabetically by name. Included are the
performer-managers Dan Bryant, George N. Christy, Frank Dumont, Lew Dockstader,
Billy Emerson, Dan Emmett, Al. G. Field, Eddie Leonard, and George H. Primrose, and
ensembles the Big 4; Haverly's Minstrels; McIntyre and Heath; the San Francisco
Minstrels; and Thatcher, Primrose, and West's Minstrels. This series also includes
photographs of motion picture actors and variety performers from the 1920s and 1930s
who utilized blackface makeup in their routines, as well as female impersonators and
banjoists. Very few female or African American minstrels are represented in this
series or elsewhere in the collection. (See the folder of
Notable items include the unpublished manuscript of the memoirs of the minstrel show
performer-manager Samuel S. Sanford (d. 1905), and autograph vocal and instrumental
parts used by blackface comedian and dancer
Many of the photographs from the 1920s and 1930s are publicity photographs that were previously in the possession of the Palace Theatre's Photograph and Press Bureau in New York. Aimé Dupont was frequently the photographer, and most of the photographs are gelatin silver prints. Composite portraits and unidentified items are located at the end of the series.
(See Notes Concerning the Folder List for Series I following this Scope and Contents note for an explanation of how the contents of the folders were described.)
Series II contains playbills and programs, mostly for New York City theaters, 1847-1914, arranged alphabetically by name of company or performer. Companies represented by five or more items warranted a separate folder; others are filed in alphabetical groupings.
The Scrapbooks series, 1835-1927, contains photographs and clippings mounted in two
intact scrapbooks, one disbound scrapbook, and about 50 loose scrapbook leaves, the
latter grouped according to provenance insofar as this could be determined.
(Scrapbooks in this collection were previously handled in several ways: individual
leaves were acquired, as were entire scrapbooks, and some scrapbooks were disbound
and the leaves distributed into Series I. Groups of scrapbook leaves should not be
considered complete.) Photographs in the
The bulk of the Printed Music series, 1834-1934, comprises sheet music for circa 500 songs, most of which were popularized by white minstrel show performers. A small number of other songs were introduced by African American singers. The sheet music files also include several piano scores for songs. The music is arranged by date of publication, or by copyright date when no publication date is given. (In addition to the sheet music in this series, Series I contains a small number of photographs of early sheet music from the 1840s and 1850s.) This series also includes a folder of clippings about the songwriting business and three songbooks.
The Songsters, Jokesters, and Miscellaneous Booklets series is divided into two subseries: A. Songsters, 1833-1883, undated, and B. Jokesters and Miscellaneous Booklets, 1870-1908, undated. Within each subseries, items are arranged by title, except for several folders of mounted songster leaves that are arranged by date. The Songsters subseries comprises about 240 booklets of lyrics for songs which were popularized by comedians and minstrel show performers; sometimes the texts of jokes are interspersed with the lyrics. About one third of the songsters bear the name of a specific company or performer, as in
Highlights of the Miscellaneous series, 1858-1931, include a McDonough's Opera House
folder which contains letters to the manager of the Opera House in Middletown,
Conn., and contracts. The banjo, a common instrument in minstrel shows, is
represented by a folder of clippings, advertisements, and instruction books. In
addition to the
For a fuller description of the collection, see:
Brokaw, John W.
The finding aid for the Minstrel Show Collection is a conflation of the original inventory created in 1999, and of a small addition that was catalogued in 2008, as well as later additions. Currently the additions are described by a second inventory which has been appended to the original inventory, continuing the box and folder numbering sequence. Indices are available for the songsters and jokesters contained in Series V.
The Minstrel Show Collection was assembled by Theater Arts staff from the Albert
Davis and Messmore Kendall Collections. Other materials were added later: the
The contents of each folder in Series I are described by format (photos, prints,
clippings, etc.). Engravings and lithographs are referred to generically as
Many minstrel show performers, particularly the more successful ones, performed with
more than one ensemble during their career, sometimes lending their names to the
group if they owned all or part of it. Their names are cross-referenced wherever
possible; e.g., for the duo Williams and Walker, the entry for George Walker points
to Williams and Walker. (However, Bert Williams is not afforded a cross-reference
because he is a short step from Williams and Walker in the alphabet.) Names of
individuals precede names of ensembles; thus,
Edward Le Roy Rice's
Assembled from various Theater Arts collections, including the Albert Davis and Messmore Kendall Collections and others.
Open for research. Due to their fragile condition, photocopies of some clippings, programs, sheet music, and songsters must be used, when available.
Elsewhere in the Ransom Center Performing Arts Collection are circa 200 selections of minstrel show sheet music which can be found in the Sheet Music Collection.
Helen Baer and Antonio Alfau, 1999; Helen Adair, 2008, 2011