Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities

Photographs of dancer and choreographer Pearl Primus dancing “Hard Time Blues,” her dance based on a folk song about sharecropping by singer Josh White. Primus was well known and widely celebrated for her dance performances based on important African American poems and songs, including “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes and “Strange Fruit” by Lewis Allen. Photographs by Carl Van Vechten, 1943.

Additional resources: Pearl Primus on Wikipedia; Josh White on Wikipedia; Carl Van Vechten on Wikipedia. All photographs by Carl Van Vechten are used with permission of the Van Vechten Trust; the permission of the Trust is required to reprint or use Van Vechten photographs in any way. To contact the Trust email: Van Vechten Trust.

William Carlos Williams

Joseph Brodsky

Witold Grombrowicz

Ruth Stephan

James Weldon Johnson

Edith Wharton

Zora Neale Hurston, photographed by Prentis Taylor

Billie Holiday and Mister, photographed by Carl Van Vechten

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Joseph Brodsky and his cat, photographed by Julia Schmalz

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Eugene and Carlotta O’Neill with Ben and Blemie

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Eric Knight and Toots

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Young Rachel Carson with her dog

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Witold and Rita Gombrowicz with Psina

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F.T. Marinetti and Friends

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Esther Newton and her dog, photographed by Robert Giard

Drawings of jazz performers, on wood, by Ted Joans. (Uncat JWJ MS 55)

“Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman 1959,
with Leroi Jones and A.B. Spellman Digging”

Words by Noble Sissle and music by Eubie Blake, Didn’t the Angels Sing,
NY: Leo Feist, Inc., 1968.

 The Ballad of the Brown King, a Christmas Cantata, words by Langston Huges and music by Margaret Bonds

With Filippo Tommaso Marinetti at the Futurist Table,

Richard Wright and friends,

the Romanov family,

Edith Wharton and friends,

Langston Hughes and writers in Russia,

and the James Joyce family

Blanche Dunn’s legs and shoes, Photographed by Carl Van Vechten

And, photographed in Morningside Park, New York City, by Carl Van Vechten in 1940.

Photograph of chorus line.

Party for Grace and James Weldon Johnson … Studio of Mr. Charles Studin. Drawing by Aaron Douglas. [Invitation]

Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities features new acquisitions, unique documents, and visual and textual curiosities from the collections of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. This ongoing exhibition is curated by Tim Young, Associate Curator of the Modern Books and Manuscripts Collection, and Nancy Kuhl, Associate Curator of the Yale Collection of American Literature. Additional information about these and other materials in the Beinecke Library’s collections can be found at the Library’s website: http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/