Selena Williams and Bonnie Taylor-Williams Oral History Interview: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

An oral history interview with Selena Williams and Bonnie Taylor-Williams. It consists of two versions, unedited (2023.4.1.1, .mxf) and edited (2023.4.1.2, .mov), of a single digital video recording. Selena Williams and her granddaughter, Bonnie Taylor-Williams, were interviewed by Kelly Elaine Navies on September 14th, 2019. The interview took place in the family business, Selena’s House of Beauty, a hair salon in Chicago, Illinois. At the time of the interview, Ms. Williams was 94 years old, and Ms. Taylor-Williams was 59 years old. Ms. Taylor-Williams is the primary speaker throughout the interview.

Ms. Williams and Ms. Taylor-Williams begin the interview with a discussion of Ms. Williams’s move from Mississippi to Chicago in 1941. Through this discussion, they talk about Ms. Williams’s early experiences doing hair and the beginnings of her career as a beautician in Chicago. Ms. Taylor-Williams then recounts how her grandmother founded her own hair salon in 1956 and discusses the development and expansion of the business after her grandmother was introduced to the method of hair weaving in 1959. Ms. Taylor-Williams also discusses the shop’s clientele. Through this discussion, Ms. Taylor-Williams recalls her own upbringing in and around the shop in the 1960s and 1970s and how the family all took part in the business. She also shares stories about the shop from her own career as a Hair-Weev Technician. Ms. Taylor-Williams then talks about the process of writing With These Hands: A Country Girl Came to Town, a book about her grandmother’s life, and discusses the history and storytelling traditions of her family. She also talks about her grandmother’s (and her) relationship with blues artist, B.B. King. Ms. Taylor-Williams reflects on the lessons she’s learned from the women in her family and the legacy they’ve left. She concludes the interview with a brief discussion of her writing and her desire to continue to preserve and share her family’s history and stories.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: September 14, 2019
• Created by: National Museum of African American History and Culture, American, founded 2003
• Recorded by: Trudy Hutcherson, American
• Interviewed by: Kelly Elaine Navies, American
• Interview of: Bonnie Taylor-Williams, American, born 1959
• Interview of: Selena Williams, American, 1925 - 2024
• Subject of: House of Beauty, Inc.
• Subject of: Pershing Hotel, American, 1924 - 1964
• Subject of: B.B. King, American, 1925 - 2015
• Type: oral histories
• Type: digital media - born digital
• Medium: digital
• Dimensions: Duration (2023.4.1.1): 1:25:50
• Dimensions: Duration (2023.4.1.2): 1:40:38
• Dimensions: File size (total): 150 GB
• Place captured: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States, North and Central America
• Place depicted: Clarksdale, Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States, North and Central America
• Place depicted: Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Beauty culture
• Topic: Beauty salons (Beauty shops)
• Topic: Beauty schools
• Topic: Black Enterprise
• Topic: Blues (Music)
• Topic: Business
• Topic: Families
• Object number: 2023.4.1
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• 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: © Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.