Headshot portrait of Melba Moore as Purlie character Lutiebelle: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A sepia tone portrait photograph of Melba Moore in character as Lutiebelle from her 1970 Broadway performance of Purlie. The large format photograph depicts Moore dressed as Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins with a round hat, pigtails tied with ribbon bows, and a lace top over a striped blouse. She is captured in front of a stage wood plank wall and smiling. The headshot is printed from edge to edge of the paper and adhered to a thick brown wove paper cardboard backing. There are no markings on the reverse of the backing.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1970
• Photograph by: Unidentified
• Subject of: Melba Moore, American, born 1945
• Subject of: Broadway Theatre, American, founded 1924
• Published by: Playbill, American, founded 1884
• Type: photographs
• Type: portraits
• Medium: photographic materials with cardboard
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 26 × 15 15/16 × 3/16 in. (66 × 40.5 × 0.4 cm)
• Place depicted: New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: Broadway Theatre
• Topic: Musicians
• Topic: Photography
• Topic: Singers (Musicians)
• Topic: Theatre
• Object number: 2024.13.1
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Melba Moore and Charli Huggins
• 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.