Costume design drawing by Judy Dearing for Billie Holiday in The Song of Sheba: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A costume design drawing by Judy Dearing for the character Billie Holiday in the musical The Song of Sheba. The drawing depicts a woman standing with her head face uplifted and her hands behind her back. She is wearing a large white flower in her upswept hair, a white beaded choker, a black shoulderless fitted ankle-length gown with a slit down the back, and a black high-heeled shoes. The woman and her clothing are outlined in black ink with watercolor and unidentified pigment shading. The stamp for the United Scenic Artists Local 829 is in black ink in the lower left facing corner, with Dearing's signature in black ink below the stamp. The reverse is blank.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1989
• Created by: Judy Dearing, American, 1940 - 1995
• Type: design drawings
• Medium: ink, watercolor, and pigment on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 13 3/4 × 11 in. (34.9 × 27.9 cm)
• Place used: New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Art
• Topic: Blues (Music)
• Topic: Costume
• Topic: Costume design
• Topic: Design
• Topic: Jazz (Music)
• Topic: Musical Theatre
• Object number: 2014.128.17
• 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: Unknown - Restrictions Possible Rights assessment and proper usage is the responsibility of the user.