Plays and Pageants from the Life of the Negro: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A hardcover book titled Plays and Pageants from the Life of the Negro by Willis Richardson. The front cover is brown with black text and images and boxes. The top box contains the title and author of the book. An image in the bottom box depicts the heads of two figures with short hair silhouetted in profile and looking to the left. Wavy and straight lines are underneath the heads. The binding has the title with similar straight and wavy lines separating from a silhouetted depiction of a cloaked figure holding a staff and “THE / ASSOCIATED / PUBLISHERS” near the bottom. The back cover is brown and blank. The front free endpaper is stamped with “Alice B. Durham” in purple ink at top right. The book is three hundred seventy-three (373) pages and is illustrated throughout with stylized woodcuts.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1930
• Edited by: Willis Richardson, American, 1889 - 1977
• Illustrated by: James Lesesne Wells, American, 1902 - 1993
• Published by: The Associated Publishers, Inc., American, 1921 - 2005
• Type: hardcover books
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 9 1/16 × 6 7/16 × 1 1/2 in. (23 × 16.4 × 3.8 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Drama (Theatre)
• Topic: Literature
• Object number: 2014.53.6
• 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: © 1930, Associated Publishers Inc Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.