The VooDoo Man: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Sheet music for The VoodDoo Man with red, green, brown, and black ink on paper. The front cover features two black and white photographs. Each photograph features an unidentified man, mouth agape, wearing a boater hat. The cover text reads: [The VooDoo Man / WILLIAMS & WALKER'S / GREAT SUCCESS / Published by Permission / of Hurtig & Seamon / owners of the Copyright / MUSIC SUPPLEMENT OF THE SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER.]. The initials: [K.E.R.R.] are at the bottom center of the drawing. There is tearing around the edges of the front cover. The inside has two pages of musical bars and notes in black ink for the song The VooDoo Man. The song credits read: [Words & Music by Williams & Walker]. The music for The VooDoo Man continues on the back cover in black in. Music for two additional songs are beneath the end of The Voodoo Man. The text for the two additional songs reads: [Gladys / Written and Composed / by Theo. H. Northrup] and [I Certn’ly Was A Very Busy Man / (A Coon Rhapsody.) / Words by / Sam Bennett / Music by / Theo. H. Northrup].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1899
• Composed by: Bert Williams, American, 1874 - 1922
• Composed by: George "Nash" Walker, American, 1873 - 1911
• Produced by: Hurtig & Seamon, American
• Printed by: San Francisco Examiner, American, founded 1863
• Owned by: Mary Elizabeth Sugg, American, 1839 - 1915
• Owned by: Vernon Sugg McDonald, American, 1906 - 1982
• Type: sheet music
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 14 × 10 5/8 in. (35.6 × 27 cm)
• Place collected: Sugg McDonald House, Sonora, Tuolumne County, California, United States, North and Central America
• Place printed: San Francisco, California, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Blackface
• Topic: Minstrel (Music)
• Topic: Stereotypes
• Topic: Vaudeville
• Object number: 2014.275.13
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Sylvia Alden Roberts
• 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: No Known Copyright Restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.