Sister Rosetta Tharpe: America's Greatest Gospel Singing and Guitar Playing Star: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A souvenir program from a Sister Rosetta Tharpe concert tour in England. The program has a blue cover with a white image and black text. The image depicts Sister Rosetta Tharpe singing. She is standing with a guitar strapped to her shoulder with her arms outstretched. Her eyes are closed. Black text at the bottom of the cover reads “JAZZSHOWS / present / Sister ROSETTA THARPE / America’s Greatest / GOSPEL SINGING and / GUITAR PLAYING STAR / SOUVENIR / PROGRAMME / ONE SHILLING.” The program has eight pages and gives biographical information on Rosetta Tharpe as well as the rest of the band members performing on the tour. The places listed in the program that the tour performed at are “London, Bournemouth, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Newcastle, Harrogate, Bradford, Leeds.” The back cover features an advertisements for a Sister Rosetta Tharpe album and for the 1958 "Floating Tour of Jazz."

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1958
• Created by: Jazzshows Limited, British, 1956 - 1962
• Subject of: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, American, 1915 - 1973
• Printed by: Small Offset Services Ltd., British
• Type: programs
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 9 1/16 × 7 1/16 in. (23 × 18 cm)
• Place made: London, England, United Kingdom, Europe
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Blues (Music)
• Topic: Gospel (Music)
• Topic: Instrumentalists (Musicians)
• Topic: Jazz (Music)
• Topic: Mass media
• Topic: Rock and roll (Music)
• Topic: Singers (Musicians)
• Object number: 2014.98.6
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Gayle Wald
• 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: Unknown - Restrictions Possible Rights assessment and proper usage is the responsibility of the user.