Gelatin silver print of a line of guests arriving behind a velvet rope: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A black and white photo of guests arriving to an unidentified theatre.

The image depicts a line of people in coats and hats arriving through an open doorway into the lobby of theatre. At the center of the image, the first guest in the line is beginning to walk through an aisle formed of velvet ropes on brass poles along either side. She is dressed in a dark colored skirt and matching jacket with fur stole, a light colored hat, and a dark colored leather pocketbook tucked into the crook of her arm. Behind her is another woman with dark floral print dress, light-colored coat, dark-colored hat, followed by several men and women also in hats. On the far side of the velvet ropes is a man in a dark-colored suit, his proper right hand resting on the rope and his face turned away from the camera and towards the crowd entering through the doors. On the near side of the velvet ropes is a ticket stand, with only the hand of the ticket taker visible at very left edge of the image. The building lobby has marble paneling halfway up the walls, with the top half of walls featuring framed photographs against a dark background.

On the verso, in the center is a stamp in red ink reading [PLEASE CREDIT / WPA FEDERAL THEATRE PHOTOS] with [BY MARTIN HARRIS] added in handwritten graphite. At the bottom center is another stamp in red ink reading [PROPERTY OF PLAY BUREAU / RETURN TO PRODUCTION FILE].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1935-1939
• Photograph by: Martin Harris
• Subject of: Federal Theatre Project, American, 1935 - 1939
• Type: gelatin silver prints
• Type: portraits
• Medium: silver and photographic gelatin on photographic gelatin
• Dimensions: H x W: 10 1/16 × 8 in. (25.6 × 20.3 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W: 9 1/2 × 7 1/2 in. (24.1 × 19.1 cm)
• Place captured: United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Nightlife
• Topic: Photography
• Topic: Theatre
• Object number: 2015.97.38.29
• 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 displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: Public domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.