Poster for The Devil's Daughter: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Poster for the film The Devil's Daughter depicting several scenes and characters from the movie, with the movie title across the poster's center in large red letters against a white background. The top section of the poster shows a movie scene with a young woman reclining and two people standing over her. They are surrounded by tropical trees. The young woman wears a short light-colored camisole, while the person standing by her head wears a light-colored shirt and headwrap and holds a knife. The second person wears a light-colored shirt, pants, and panama hat, and holds his right fist up in a threatening manner while looking at the individual holding the knife. A woman in a red sleeveless dress, Nina Mae McKinney, stands at the edge of the scene. She holds a stall staff in her right hand and watches the scene over her left shoulder. Among the tropical foliage next to her is text that reads [Sister Against Siste r/ in a BURNING / DRAMA / OF LOVE / and HATE / in the / TROPICS!]. The bottom of the poster depicts McKinney seated in a three-quarter profile turn, gazing directly at the viewer. She is outlined in a red glow and has devil horns sketched over her head. There is a sketch of a devil's face over her left shoulder. On the left side of the poster is the figure of a man holding a piglet out in front of him. Below this figure is text that reads [See the Sensational / BLOOD DANCE].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1939
• Distributed by: Sack Amusement Enterprises, American, 1920 - 1979
• Subject of: Nina Mae McKinney, American, 1912 - 1967
• Subject of: Hamtree Harrington, American, 1886 - 1954
• Subject of: Ida James, American, 1920 - 1986
• Subject of: Jack Carter, American, 1902 - 1967
• Subject of: Emmett "Babe" Wallace, American, 1909 - 2006
• Type: posters
• Medium: ink on paper (fiber product)
• Dimensions: H x W (image): 39 × 24 15/16 in. (99.1 × 63.3 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (sheet): 41 1/8 × 27 in. (104.4 × 68.6 cm)
• Place used: United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Race films
• Object number: 2013.118.30
• 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.