The New Negro: An Interpretation: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A hardcover, first edition of The New Negro: An Interpretation, an anthology of essays, fiction, poetry and art on African American culture written and edited by Alain Locke. The volume is jacketless and both front and back covers are dark blue with one small white square at center. The front square is printed with [THE / NEW / NEGRO] and the back cover has a dark blue geometric mask-like design. The sand-colored cloth spine has dark blue print that reads: [THE / NEW / NEGRO / EDITED / BY / ALAIN / LOCKE / ALBERT / AND / CHARLES / BONI]. The interior end pages feature a bright pink tropical print of people, animals, and plants. The front interior cover has a bookplate from the Community Church of New York Library, the opposite page has a handwritten inscription with the date “December, 1925.” The interior contents include multiple color illustrated portraits of the contributors, other illustrations, and African-inspired art deco designs throughout. The final page with type is numbered at 452.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1925
• Written by: Alain LeRoy Locke, American, 1885 - 1954
• Published by: Albert & Charles Boni
• Illustrated by: Aaron Douglas, American, 1899 - 1979
• Illustrated by: Miguel Covarrubias, Mexican, 1904 - 1957
• Illustrated by: F. Winold Reiss, German American, 1886 - 1953
• Written by: Zora Neale Hurston, American, 1891 - 1960
• Written by: Rudolph Fisher, American, 1897 - 1934
• Written by: Albert Coombs Barnes, American, 1872 - 1951
• Type: books
• Medium: ink on paper with cardboard with book cloth
• Dimensions: H x W x D (closed): 9 × 6 3/8 × 1 5/8 in. (22.8 × 16.2 × 4.1 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W x D (open): 9 × 12 13/16 × 1 3/4 in. (22.8 × 32.5 × 4.5 cm)
• Place printed: New York, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Art
• Topic: Dance
• Topic: Folklife
• Topic: Identity
• Topic: Jazz (Music)
• Topic: Literature
• Topic: Music
• Object number: 2022.21.18
• 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.