American Music Award trophy given to Whitney Houston: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

An American Music Awards trophy given to Whitney Houston in 1987 for "Favorite Female Vocalist Soul / R & B". The trophy is a tall Lucite™ pyramid on a cube-shaped black-painted wood base. The clear quadrilateral pyramid is affixed to a small square Lucite™ platform that is adhered to the wood base. The pyramid has no markings or text. Etched onto the front edge of the square platform is the text infilled with white [AMERICAN MUSIC AWARD]. The black square wood base has a gold metal plaque affixed to the front. The plaque is etched with text infilled with black [FAVORITE FEMALE VOCALIST/ Soul/ R & B/ Whitney Houston/ 1987]. On the back of the base in the lower left corner is a small gold-colored metal strip etched with the text [8741] infilled in black. The bottom of the wood base is covered in black felt.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1987
• Issued by: American Music Awards, founded 1973
• Owned by: Whitney Houston, American, 1963 - 2012
• Type: trophies (prizes)
• Medium: Lucite™, wood, metal and felt
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 14 × 4 5/8 × 4 11/16 in. (35.6 × 11.7 × 11.9 cm)
• Place used: Los Angeles, California, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: Popular music
• Topic: Singers (Musicians)
• Topic: Women
• Object number: 2014.161.6
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Estate of Whitney Houston
• 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: Unknown - Restrictions Possible Rights assessment and proper usage is the responsibility of the user.