Poster for Am I Guilty?: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This movie poster depicts a large bust-length image of a man, Ralph Cooper, along with two smaller vignettes and a banner that bisects the top and bottom half of the poster. The poster's top left quadrant showsCooper from the shoulders up, standing in front of a microscope. At the top right quadrant within a circle is a scene of a doctor and nurse dressed for surgery, standing over a patient. The bottom left quadrant has a vignette of three men; one man appears to be attacking the second, who is a in a prone position. The third man, behind them both, has his right hand raised above his head, holding a gun by the muzzle. The remaining quadrant depicts a poster with the movie title that reads "Am I Guilty?" followed by a list of the starring actors. The top and bottom sections of the poster are divided by a wide white banner with red text that reads "RALPH COOPER."

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1940
• Created by: Supreme Pictures Corporation, American
• Subject of: Sybil Lewis, American, 1919 - 1988
• Subject of: John L. Criner, American, 1898 - 1965
• Subject of: Ralph Cooper, American, 1908 - 1992
• Subject of: Sam McDaniel, American, 1886 - 1962
• Subject of: Dewey Markham, American, 1904 - 1981
• Subject of: Edward Thompson, American, 1898 - 1960
• Subject of: Reginald Fenderson, American, 1911 - 1986
• Type: posters
• Medium: ink on paper (fiber product)
• Dimensions: H x W (image): 35 5/8 × 23 9/16 in. (90.5 × 59.8 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (sheet): 38 × 25 1/16 in. (96.5 × 63.7 cm)
• Place used: United States, North and Central America
• Place depicted: Harlem, New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Medicine
• Topic: Race films
• Object number: 2013.118.6
• 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: Public domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.