Eighteen Original Negro Spirituals by Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Thirty-two (32) page booklet of sheet music. The front cover features an image of Sister Rosetta Tharpe holding a guitar in a grayscale image centered on blue background. The title features above the graphic in blue text printed over a black background [Eighteen Original Negro Spirituals by Sister Rosetta Tharpe].Beneath the image is much smaller blue text printed over a black background which reads [Spirituals with an Original and Appealing Religious Quality Set Down/Exactly as Sung by SISTER THARPE Since Infancy in Negro Churches/All Over the Country]. The Mill Music logo is shown centered along the bottom edge to the left of the price, printed in black text in a white-square background [$1.25].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1938
• Published by: Mills Music Incorporated, 1919 - 1965
• Written by: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, American, 1915 - 1973
• Type: songbooks
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: 12 × 9 × 1/8 in. (30.5 × 22.9 × 0.3 cm)
• Place printed: New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Instrumentalists (Musicians)
• Topic: Religion
• Topic: Singers (Musicians)
• Topic: Spirituals (Music)
• Object number: 2014.98.7
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Gayle Wald
• 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.