Costume oil can prop güira for Tin Man in The Wiz on Broadway: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This oil can güira prop is part of a costume used by Tiger Haynes as Tin Man in "The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical 'Wizard of Oz'" on Broadway. It is a cylindrical tube of sheet metal with cone-shaped pieces soldered onto each long end. A rectangular hammered metal handle is nailed lengthwise to the join of the cylinder with nails. The bottom third of the cylinder has a series of hammered raised dots. When used as a percussive instrument, called a güira, these dots are scraped using a comb-like metal device to create sound.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1975
• Designed by: Geoffrey Holder, Trinidadian American, 1930 - 2014
• Created by: Fred Nihda, 1931 - 1997
• Used by: Tiger Haynes, American, 1914 - 1994
• Subject of: Black Fashion Museum, American, 1979 - 2007
• Type: güiros
• Medium: metal
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 12 1/2 × 3 3/4 × 2 in. (31.8 × 9.5 × 5.1 cm)
• Place used: New York City, Manhattan, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: Clothing and dress
• Topic: Costume
• Topic: Costume design
• Topic: Design
• Topic: Men
• Topic: Musical Theatre
• Object number: 2007.3.7.4
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Black Fashion Museum founded by Lois K. Alexander-Lane
• 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 displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: No Known Copyright Restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.