Man at the Piano, Fountain House: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A silver gelatin print depicting a black-and-white image of an unidentified man’s proper left profile seated at a piano at The Fountain House Foundation, an organization supporting mental health. With a darkened background, his fingertips are on the white keys, his head looking down at them. The man is wearing a white shirt with a black or dark-colored coat.

There is no inscription on the front of the photograph. On the back are the photographer’s stamp and signature, along with some alpha- numerical notations.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1959
• Photograph by: Frank Espada, Puerto Rican, 1930 - 2014
• Subject of: Unidentified Man or Men
• Type: gelatin silver prints
• Type: portraits
• Medium: silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 10 × 13 in. (25.4 × 33 cm)
• Place depicted: Manhattan, New York City, New York County, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Communities
• Topic: Mental health
• Topic: Photography
• Topic: Urban life
• Object number: 2021.53.6
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture purchased with funds provided by the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center
• 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: © Estate of Frank Espada Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.