Ambolena Snow: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Sheet music for song Ambolena Snow. The front cover of sheet music features an image of a caricatured African American woman in a green dress with a salmon jacket and hat. The woman is holding an umbrella in her proper left hand. Red and black type surrounds her and reads: [AN / AFRO-AMERICAN / MILITARY / BALLAD / BY / BODINE AND MAYWOOD / AUTHORS / OF / "MOLLY ON / THE / TROLLY" / PUBLISHED BY / PERMISSION OF / THE S BRAINARD'S SONS CO / CHICAGO. / COPYRIGHT / SECURED / IN / ENGLAND / SUP- / PLE- / MENT. / TO THE / SAN FRANCISCO / EXAMINER / SUNDAY / DEC. / 5 / 1897. / ALL / RIGHTS / RESERVED]. Underneath the woman a signature in black in reads: [KEANE]. The inside has two pages of musical bars and notes in black ink for the song Ambolena Snow. The credits under the title in black in read: [Words by Lester Bodine / Music by GEO. Maywood]. The song’s musical bars continue on the back cover.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1897
• Composed by: Geo. Maywood
• Written by: Lester Bodine
• Published by: S Brainard's Sons Co., American, founded 1837
• Printed by: San Francisco Examiner, American, founded 1863
• Owned by: Mary Elizabeth Sugg, American, 1839 - 1915
• Owned by: Mary Elizabeth Sugg, American, 1839 - 1915
• Owned by: Vernon Sugg McDonald, American, 1906 - 1982
• Type: sheet music
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 13 7/8 × 10 11/16 in. (35.2 × 27.1 cm)
• Place printed: San Francisco, California, United States, North and Central America
• Place collected: Sugg McDonald House, Sonora, Tuolumne County, California, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Band (Music)
• Topic: Blackface
• Topic: Caricature and cartoons
• Topic: Stereotypes
• Object number: 2014.275.6
• 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.