Overview
Collection of printed and photographic material concerning Josephine Baker.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1920-1968
Language of Materials
English, French, Danish, German
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research.
Extent
.1 linear feet (1 box)Collection includes photographic postcards and trade cards, playbills, programs, photographs, and sheet music by various composers depicting Josephine Baker, a few showing her with a cheetah.
Biographical / Historical
Josephine Baker was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress, the first African-American woman to star in a major motion picture. Baker refused to perform for segregated audiences in America; she made contributions to the Civil Rights Movement and was known for assisting the French Resistance during World War II.
Arrangement
Collection is in order as received.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2020MT-74. Purchased with funds from the Beatrice, Benjamin and Richard Bader Fund in the Visual Arts of the Theatre, 2019 October.
2022MT-94. Purchased from Swann Auction Galleries (Sale 2598, Lot 241) with the Beatrice, Benjamin and Richard Bader Fund in the Visual Arts of the Theatre, 2022 March 24.
Processing Information
This collection was processed to a basic level with minimal rehousing, organization, and preservation.
- Title
- Josephine Baker collection, circa 1920-1968 (MS Thr 2017): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University.
- Date
- 2019 December 16
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou03294
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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