A Bundle of Rags: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Sheet music for the song A Bundle of Rags. The front cover features a black, red, and white illustration of a caricatured African American man and woman doing laundry in a large wooden tub. Type above illustration reads: [A / BUNDLE / of RAGS]. Type along left side reads: [A / Series / of / Negro / MELODIES / BY]. Type along right side of illustration reads: [IN / The / Popular / RAGTIME]. Type beneath illustration reads: [ROB'T S. ROBERTS. / Author of / "THE PRIDE OF BUCKTOWN." / PUBLISHED BY / PHILIP KUSSEL / CINCINNATI.O.]. The inside of sheet music contains four pages of music bars and notes in black ink for the song A Bundle of Rags. The title credits read: [Arr by Hans S. Liné. / By Robt. S. Roberts.] The back cover features additional sheet music, ink black ink, for the songs [THE PRIDE OF BUCKTOWN] and [THE CRESCENT WALTZ].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1898
• Composed by: Robt. S. Roberts
• Composed by: Hans S. Liné
• Published by: Philip Kussel
• Owned by: Vernon Sugg McDonald, American, 1906 - 1982
• Owned by: Mary Elizabeth Sugg, American, 1839 - 1915
• Type: sheet music
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 13 1/2 × 10 11/16 in. (34.3 × 27.1 cm)
• Place collected: Sugg McDonald House, Sonora, Tuolumne County, California, United States, North and Central America
• Place printed: Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Blackface
• Topic: Caricature and cartoons
• Topic: Minstrel (Music)
• Topic: Ragtime (Music)
• Topic: Stereotypes
• Object number: 2014.275.14
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Sylvia Alden Roberts
• 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 underlying object's rights statement is: Public domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.