Group portrait of young women in costume celebrating a birthday: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

The setting of this photograph appears to the backstage space of an outdoor production (suggested by the tent sheltering the women, rough wooden furniture, large cosmetic cases, etc.). A table in the image's foreground holds a large frosted cake with numerous candles. The seated woman wears a small tiara and remains out of costume while the other women wear cropped white tops and fringed vests as well as short fringed skirts over fishnet stockings. The also wear feathered head bands which are tied low on their foreheads.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1948 - 1970s
• Created by: Rev. Henry Clay Anderson, American, 1911 - 1998
• Subject of: Unidentified Woman or Women
• Type: gelatin silver prints
• Type: portraits
• Medium: photographic gelatin and silver on photographic paper
• Dimensions: H x W (Sheet): 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm)
• Place made: Greenville, Washington County, Mississippi, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Nightlife
• Topic: Photography
• Topic: Social life and customs
• Topic: Theatre
• Topic: Women
• Object number: 2012.137.3.50
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Charles Schwartz and Shawn Wilson
• 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: © Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.