Josephine, My Jo.: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Sheet music for the song Josephine, My Jo. The front cover features an illustration of an African American woman drawn in profile, wearing a ruffled dress and a large hat. A red and white photograph of a white female identified as Anna Wilks appears in bottom proper right corner. Red and black type on the front cover reads: [JOSEPHINE, / MY JO. / WORDS BY / R. C. McPHERSON / MUSIC BY / JAS. T. BRYMN ]. Underneath the photograph there is a publisher’s logo which reads: [PULISHED BY / SHAPIRO, BERNSTEIN / AND / COMPANY / CHICAGO / 53 DEARBORN ST. / NEW YORK / 45 WEST 28th ST. / SAN FRANCISCO CAL PHELAN BLDG]. The interior of the front cover has black ink and an advertisement. The interior of the sheet music has three pages of music bars and notes, in black ink, for the song Josephine, My Jo. One of the pages has a purple stamp for The Emporium. The back cover has sheet music in green ink for several additional shorter songs.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1901
• Composed by: James T. Brymn
• Written by: R. C. McPherson
• Published by: Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., founded 1900
• Owned by: Vernon Sugg McDonald, American, 1906 - 1982
• Owned by: Mary Elizabeth Sugg, American, 1839 - 1915
• Type: sheet music
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 14 × 11 1/16 in. (35.6 × 28.1 cm)
• Place collected: Sugg McDonald House, Sonora, Tuolumne County, California, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Minstrel (Music)
• Object number: 2014.275.11
• 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 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.