Director's visor worn by Melvin Van Peebles: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

An American Stock Exchange (AMEX) visor worn by Melvin Van Peebles while directing. The 3” visor brim is made from cream colored cotton on the top side and green cotton fabric on the underside, with a layer of stiff plastic in between. A panel of 3.25” high cream-colored cotton makes up the visor band and there’s a panel of white cotton sewn to the top. In between the two layers of cotton, is a layer of foam. [XCI / XOI / AMEX OPTIONS] is printed in green text across the front of the band on the white cotton panel. The visor tightens in the back with two white plastic slide adjusters. A small white tag stitched to the back of the hat band has black printed text that reads [C. V. Cotton].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: Mid to late 20th century
• Created by: The American Express Company, American, founded 1850
• Subject of: Melvin Van Peebles, American, 1932 - 2021
• Type: visors
• Type: hats
• Medium: cotton, foam rubber, and plastic
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 3 3/8 × 9 9/16 × 9 5/16 × 22 in. (8.6 × 24.3 × 23.6 × 55.9 cm)
• Place made: United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: Black Enterprise
• Topic: Clothing and dress
• Topic: Fashion
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Musicians
• Object number: 2024.60.20
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: No known copyright restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.