Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp): Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A cast metal souvenir replica version of the sculpture Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp) by Augusta Savage that was commissioned for the 1939 New York World's Fair and displayed in the courtyard of the Pavilion of Contemporary Art.

The sculpture depicts a harp composed of an African American children's chorus with twelve singing, child figures arranged in descending height. The children's bodies appear somewhat cylindrical, creating a semblance of harp strings. Arranged behind a kneeling male figure at the front of the sculpture, they are dressed in choir robes, their mouths open in song, and stand with their arms behind their backs. The standing figures are cradled by a large outstretched forearm and hand that extends from the oval base, forming the harp's soundboard. There are three inscriptions in the metal on the oval base that read: “Augusta Savage” and “Worlds Fair 1939” along with a partial word “[….] right."

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1939
• Created by: Augusta Savage, American, 1892 - 1962
• Subject of: James Weldon Johnson, American, 1871 - 1938
• Subject of: J. Rosamond Johnson, American, 1873 - 1954
• Type: sculpture
• Medium: metal
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 10 13/16 × 4 × 10 1/4 in. (27.5 × 10.2 × 26 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Art
• Topic: Poetry
• Topic: Spirituals (Music)
• Object number: 2015.274
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Blount, Holloway and Edgerton Families
• 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.