Photographs of vaudeville performer Bert Williams
Overview
Photographs of African American vaudeville comedian, actor, and singer, Bert Williams.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1900-1922
Condition Description
In good condition.
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff for retrieval policies and times.
Extent
.04 linear feet (1 volume)Eight black and white photographs bearing labels from Culver Pictures, Inc. of Bert Williams in both portraits and informal shots, several showing him in blackface and one showing him in a rooster costume for the "Ziegfeld Follies of 1910".
Biographical / Historical
Egbert Austin ("Bert") Williams was a a Black Bahamian-born actor, singer, and comedian, the first Black man to have a leading role on Broadway (In Dahomey, 1903) and in a film (Darktown Jubilee, 1914).
Arrangement
Arranged as received.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Custodial History
Previously owned by Culver Pictures, Inc.; subsequent ownership is unknown.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2022MT-97. Purchased from Daniel / Oliver Gallery with the Frank E. Chase Bequest, 2022 April 18.
Processing Information
This collection was processed to a basic level with minimal rehousing, organization, and preservation. (Melanie Wisner, 2022)
Subject
- Williams, Bert, 1874-1922 (Person)
- Culver Pictures (Former owner, Organization)
- Title
- Photographs of vaudeville performer Bert Williams, circa 1900-1922 (MS Thr 2203): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2022 June 1
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03478
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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