St. James' Infirmary; When You're Smiling: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Ten Black Berries. side 1: St. James' Infirmary; side 2: When You're Smiling (Perfect 15272). 78 rpm. This coupling was released on other American Record Corporation (ARC) labels.

Ten Black Berries is a pseudonym for Duke Ellington and his Orchestra on Perfect.

Perfect Records was an American budget record label founded in by Pathé Phonograph and Radio Corporation, in 1922. Perfect and Pathé became part of the original merger of record labels that formed the American Record Corporation, in 1929. Perfect was discontinued in 1938.

In 1929, the American Record Corporation (ARC) was established with the merger of three companies. These were the Cameo Record Corporation (which owned Cameo, Lincoln and Romeo Records), the Pathé Phonograph and Radio Corporation (which owned Actuelle, Pathé, and Perfect), and the Plaza Music Company (which owned Banner, Domino, Jewel, Oriole, and Regal).

Materials, dates and provenance

• recording date: 1930
• recording artist: Primrose, Joe
• recording artist: Smith, Sunny
• recording artist: Ten Black Berries
• recording artist: Duke Ellington and his Orchestra
• manufacturer: Perfect
• Object Name: sound recording
• Physical Description: shellac (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 10 in; 25.4 cm
• place made: United States
• ID Number: 1988.0698.2211
• catalog number: 1988.0698.2211
• accession number: 1988.0698
• collector/donor number: T23
• maker number: 15272
• Credit Line: Gift of Howard A. Guernsey (through Richard L. Guernsey)
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.