Gelatin silver print of of Roland Hayes: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Hayes is pictured from the shoulders up and is wearing a white collared shirt, a dark suit jacket and matching vest and a polka dot bowtie. He has a white pocket square and curly hair. There are no inscriptions on the front.

On the back of the print is a stamped copyright notice for Underwood & Underwood and the stamped date "DEC 10 1923," along with an adhered piece of paper with typed caption reading "COLORED CARUSO RETURNING TO U.S. AFTER EUROPEAN TRIUMPH: Recent portrait of ROLAND HAYES, the colored tenor who is ranked by Europeans as among the finest living was superlatively acclaimed by all New York critics [loss] recent recital. That he has commanded of any situation proved when he calmed a Czech race riot at the Prague a change from an Italian to American number was [loss] from the platform and he sang in English. He is at present on his way back to the United [loss]."

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1923
• Photograph by: Underwood & Underwood, American, 1881 - 1940s
• Subject of: Roland Hayes, American, 1887 - 1977
• Type: gelatin silver prints
• Type: portraits
• Medium: silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper with ink on paper with tape
• Dimensions: H x W: 7 3/4 × 5 1/4 in. (19.7 × 13.3 cm)
• Place printed: New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Place depicted: Prague, Czech Republic, Europe
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Composers (Musicians)
• Topic: Photography
• Topic: Singers (Musicians)
• Object number: 2015.97.38.22.1
• 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 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.