Rusco & Hockwald's Famous Georgia Minstrels' Song Album: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Sheet music for songs from Rusco & Hockwald’s Famous Georgia Minstrels’. The front cover features blue and white images of W. A. Rusco [top left] and Arthur Hockwald [bottom right]. There are also two caricatured illustrations of African American men, one positioned behind the “G” in the word Georgia, and one playing the banjo next to Hockwald’s image. Red and black type on front cover reads: [NEARLY HALF A CENTURY OF SUCCESS / FORTY PEOPLE / BAND AND ORCHESTRA / RUSCO & HOCKWALD'S / FAMOUS / GEORGIA / MINSTRELS' /SONG / ALBUM / PRICE 50¢]. A text box at the bottom reads: [HAROLD ROSSITER MUSIC COMPANY / Chicago - 323-325 W. Madison St. - Illinois]. The inside of the front cover has red ink and is titled: [New Jokes by Old Jokers]. The sheet music interior has sixteen pages in black ink. The pages include music bars and notes, lists of songs, jokes, and cartoons. The back inside cover is also in red ink and is titled: [Komikal Konundrums]. The back cover in black ink reads: [WITCHES' DICTIONARY OF DREAMS].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1920
• Published by: Harold Rossiter Music Company, American
• Subject of: Rusco & Hockwald's Famous Georgia Minstrels, American
• Produced by: Arthur Hockwald
• Produced by: W. A. Rusco
• Owned by: Vernon Sugg McDonald, American, 1906 - 1982
• Type: sheet music
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 13 3/4 × 10 1/4 in. (34.9 × 26 cm)
• Place collected: Sonora, Tuolumne County, California, United States, North and Central America
• Place printed: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Blackface
• Topic: Minstrel (Music)
• Topic: Stereotypes
• Object number: 2014.275.1
• 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.