Calypso Songs: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A song and story book about Harry Belafonte, titled: [CALYPSO SONGS]. The cover features red and green letters at the top, a black and white photograph of Harry Belafonte at center left, and drawings of drums, maracas, and banjo at center right. Black type in a circle at the bottom lists the songs included in the song book. The back cover features a larger black and white photograph of Belafonte.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1957
• Published by: Charlton Publications, American, founded 1940
• Subject of: Harry Belafonte Jr., American, 1927 - 2023
• Type: magazines (periodicals)
• Medium: ink on printing paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 11 x 8 5/16 in. (27.9 x 21.1 cm)
• Place printed: Derby, New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, North and Central America
• Cultural Place: Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean, North and Central America
• Cultural Place: Jamaica, Caribbean, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: African diaspora
• Topic: Calypso (Music)
• Topic: Instrumentalists (Musicians)
• Object number: 2010.34.13
• 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 underlying object's rights statement is: Unknown-Restrictions Possible Rights assessment and proper usage is the responsibility of the user.