Ma Angeline: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Sheet music for the song Ma Angeline. The front cover of the sheet music features a black and white photograph of a man in blackface. An image of the man not in makeup appears in bottom left corner. Red type on top portion of front cover reads: [Respectfully Dedicated to Mr. Carroll Johnson. / Ma / ANGELINE]. Type along proper left edge of front cover reads: [GREATEST / COON SONG / Of the Age / BY / Charles / Sydney / O'Brien / Authur [sic] of / "De Ole Black Coon" / "De Happy Virginny Darkey" / Arranged By / Lee Johnson / Authur [sic] of / THE POPULAR / "NEW / BULLY."]. Type directly below photograph of man in blackface reads: [Published by / THE ZENO MAUVAIS MUSIC COMPANY, / 769 Market Street, San Francisco. / Copyright, 1896, by THE ZENO MAUVAIS MUSIC COMPANY.]. Type along proper right side of the cover reads: [Sung / with / Electric Success / by / Carroll Johnson / KING OF / Singing Comedians].The bottom corners of the cover have text that reads: [4 / Schottische / 4 / Song]. There is handwriting, in pencil, on the top of the cover that reads: [Mr. Earnest Sugg / Comp. of D.W.M. / March. 22. 96.]. Handwriting on the bottom of the cover, in black ink, reads: [Yours in Color / Carroll Johnson]. The interior of the sheet music contains four pages of music bars and notes in black ink. The back cover has several other short songs.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1895
• Composed by: Charles Sydney O'Brien
• Written by: Lee Johnson
• Published by: The Zeno Mauvais Music Company, American, 1877 - 1906
• 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 × 10 5/8 in. (35.6 × 27 cm)
• Place collected: Sonora, Tuolumne County, California, United States, North and Central America
• Place printed: San Francisco, California, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Blackface
• Topic: Minstrel (Music)
• Topic: Stereotypes
• Object number: 2014.275.9
• 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 underlying object's rights statement is: Public domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.