Visual Materials
The People and culture subseries comprises sheet music published between 1900 and 1962, and focuses on scores with images of, or are about, children, death and mourning, holidays, immigrants, marriage, men, organizations, people of color, politics, religion, and women. A portion of the scores are benign in nature; however, there is a heavy concentration of derogatory imagery and language showcased throughout a range of Coon songs, jazz, minstrel scores, plantation melodies, pop, and ragtime tunes.
Following a similar pattern, other scores focus on the experiences of immigrants, women, and other marginalized groups of people. This includes people of African, Asian, Hispanic, Irish, Italian, and Middle Eastern descent, as well as people of Hawaiian, Fijian, Jewish, and Native American origin. A few examples include Happy Little Coons, by J.W. Ladd, Hasta Mañana Until Tomorrow, by Egbert Van Alstyne, I'm A Yiddish Cowboy (Tough Guy Levi) by Al Pantadosi and Halsey K. Mohr, Who'll Take Care of the Harem When the Sultan Goes To War? by William J. Lewis, Chong He Come From Hong Kong by Harold Weeks, Good-Bye Red-Man Good-Bye by Ted Snyder, and Honest Injun by Harry Von Tilzer.
To note is Apache Chief Gernimo's Own Medicine Song by Carlos Troyer. The latter was representative of the Indianist movement during the late 19th century, which was part of a broader interest in Native American music. There are also scores dedicated to significant fraternal orders and nonprofit organizations, including the Pullman porters, the Grand Aerie Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Kiwanis Club of Atlanta, and the Ku Klux Klan.
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