Popular Entertainment - Overview
This Museum's popular entertainment collections hold some of the Smithsonian's most beloved artifacts. The ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz reside here, along with the Muppet character Kermit the Frog, and props from popular television series such as M*A*S*H and All in the Family. But as in many of the Museum's collections, the best-known objects are a small part of the story.
The collection also encompasses many other artifacts of 19th- and 20th-century commercial theater, film, radio, and TV—some 50,000 sound recordings dating back to 1903; posters, publicity stills, and programs from films and performances; puppets; numerous items from World's Fairs from 1851 to 1992; and audiovisual materials on Groucho Marx, to name only a few.
"Popular Entertainment - Overview" showing 83 items.
Page 1 of 9
Shakespeare's King Lear, final proof
- Description
- Shakespeare's plays have engaged audiences for centuries, and his theatrical subject matter has influenced the visual arts as well. In the 1790s, London publishers John and Josiah Boydell opened the "Shakspeare Gallery" filled with paintings they commissioned to depict scenes from the plays. One hundred of these images were engraved as large prints and proved to be so popular that several editions were published, including an American edition in the 1840s.
- King Lear, showing Lear in the storm from Act III, Scene IV, was engraved in 1793 by William Sharp (1749–1824) after the painting by Benjamin West (1738–1820). This dramatic scene was considered a powerful moral lesson representing energy of thought and action. The painting came to the United States in 1807, part of the collection of engineer Robert Fulton (1765–1815). It was exhibited in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York and is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
- Many collectors considered Sharp's engraving of King Lear the finest of the prints in Boydells' Shakspeare Gallery series. Vermont Congressman George Perkins Marsh and President Thomas Jefferson owned prints from the Shakspeare Gallery. This impression from the original English edition came to the Museum in 1979 as a bequest from the family of American artist Stephen Alonzo Schoff (1818–1904), a bank-note engraver who also produced prints in larger formats. Schoff studied art in Europe between 1839 and 1841, and he acquired a significant collection of European and American prints to serve as his working visual library. He owned a preliminary etched proof prepared in an acid bath and this final state of the print finished by hand with the burin, an engraver's cutting tool.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1793
- referenced
- Shakespeare, William
- original artist
- West, Benjamin
- publisher
- Boydell, John
- Boydell, Josiah
- maker
- Sharp, William
- ID Number
- 1979.0114.166
- accession number
- 1979.0114
- catalog number
- 1979.0114.166
- 79.0114.166
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Shakespeare's King Lear, early proof
- Description
- Shakespeare's plays have engaged audiences for centuries, and his theatrical subject matter has influenced the visual arts as well. In the 1790s, London publishers John and Josiah Boydell opened the "Shakspeare Gallery" filled with paintings commissioned
- to depict scenes from the plays. One hundred of these images were engraved as large prints and proved to be so popular that several editions were published, including an American edition in the 1840s.
- King Lear, showing Lear in the storm from Act III, Scene iv, was engraved in 1793 by William Sharp (1749–1824) after the painting by Benjamin West (1738–1820). This dramatic scene was considered a powerful moral lesson representing energy of thought and action. The painting came to the United States in 1807, part of the collection of engineer Robert Fulton (1765–1815). It was exhibited in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York and is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
- Many collectors considered Sharp's engraving of King Lear the finest of the prints in Boydells' Shakspeare Gallery series. Vermont Congressman George Perkins Marsh and President Thomas Jefferson owned prints from the Shakspeare Gallery. This impression from the original English edition came to the Museum in 1979 as a bequest from the family of American artist Stephen Alonzo Schoff (1818–1904), a bank-note engraver who also produced prints in larger formats. Schoff studied art in Europe between 1839 and 1841, and he acquired a significant collection of European and American prints to serve as his working visual library. He owned this preliminary etched proof prepared in an acid bath and a final state of the print finished by hand with the burin, an engraver's cutting tool.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1792
- referenced
- Shakespeare, William
- publisher
- Boydell, John
- Boydell, Josiah
- original artist
- West, Benjamin
- maker
- Sharp, William
- ID Number
- 1979.0114.167
- accession number
- 1979.0114
- catalog number
- 1979.0114.167
- 79.0114.167
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Crayola Crayons
- Description
- Cherished by generations of child artists, Crayola crayons were invented in 1903 by the Binney & Smith Company of Easton, Pennsylvania. Using paraffin wax and nontoxic pigments, the company produced a coloring stick that was safe, sturdy, and affordable. The name "Crayola," coined by the wife of the company's founder, comes from "craie," French for "chalk," and "oleaginous," or "oily."
- This Crayola set for "young artists" was one of the earliest produced. Its twenty-eight colors include celestial blue, golden ochre, rose pink, and burnt sienna. The box is marked, "No. 51, Young Artists Drawing Crayons, for coloring Maps, Pictures" and contains twenty two of the original 28 crayons. Crayons are icons of American childhood that recall our collective memory for coloring both inside and outside the lines. Affordable and easily obtainable, they have transformed art education and fostered creativity in schools and homes, providing color to children for generations.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1903
- maker
- Binney and Smith
- ID Number
- 2000.0073.41
- accession number
- 2000.0073
- catalog number
- 2000.0073.41
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Chromolithograph, Making the Scrap Book
- Description
- The impulse to clip and save images is familiar to many people, and today there is active interest in scrapbooks. In Juliana Oakley's 1865 painting, "Making the Scrap Book," a girl in a spotless white dress is trimming small engravings for inclusion in the scrapbook at her feet. The setting includes books, furniture, and other pictures that symbolize art and learning. These objects suggest middle-class cultural values and aspirations, while the activity itself indicates the importance of memory and its construction in the post-Civil War period.
- Oakley's painting was exhibited in New York and Philadelphia, where it was purchased by portrait painter G. P. A. Healy in 1865. Healy lived in Chicago, permitting Louis Kurz's Chicago Lithographing Company to reproduce the painting in full color as a chromolithograph in 1868. Chromolithography used multiple lithographic stones for commercial and artistic printing in color. Separate stones were used to print each basic color, and some highlights were added by hand. The Museum's copy of this print has labels from both the Chicago publisher and the New York City retailer indicating its national distribution.
- During the 19th century, many Americans believed in art as an agent of cultural improvement. Specific prints were cited for their civilizing influence, providing moral uplift as well as taste and refinement. Household manuals like The American Woman's Home, published in 1869 by Harriet Beecher Stowe and her sister Catharine Beecher, recommended that prints be framed and placed where they would be seen daily. They cited specific chromolithographs after American paintings as affordable and worthy of contemplation, including Juliana Oakley's "Making the Scrapbook." Looking at such prints, the Beecher sisters argued, invoked a child's powers of observation and imaginative faculties, influencing the formation of individual character and, by extension, the nation.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1868
- owner
- Healy, George Peter Alexander
- graphic artist
- Chicago Lithographing Company
- original artist
- Oakley, Juliana
- publisher
- Jenkinson, Keitz and Company
- lithographer
- Kurz, Louis
- ID Number
- 2001.0074.1
- accession number
- 2001.0074.01
- catalog number
- 2001.0074.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Gatemouth Brown
- Description
- Talented on many instruments--guitar, fiddle, harmonica, drums--Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (1924-2005) was one of the most versatile musicians of his time. Defying easy categorization, Gatemouth said he just wanted to play American music "Texas-style."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1976
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.003
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.003
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Harmonica Frank Floyd
- Description
- Photographed backstage, "Harmonica" Frank Floyd (1908-1984) was an entertainer for the better part of the 20th century. After running away from home at age twelve, he began playing harmonica in carnivals and medicine shows. His repertoire included jokes, tricks, songs, and stories.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1973
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.006
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.006
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Stonewall Jackson
- Description
- Named after his Civil War ancestor, Stonewall Jackson (b. 1932) began performing professionally in the 1950s. Thanks to tour with Ernest Tubb, Jackson had a string of hits from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1972
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.008
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.008
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Loretta Lynn
- Description
- Loretta Lynn is a classic country singer whose life--from her autobiography, Coal Miner's Daughter--is a well-known story. She was one of the first stars to sing with a feminist point of view. Her songs, like "Don't Come Home a-Drinkin' (with Lovin' on Your Mind)" and "The Pill," broke new ground in country music. Lynn (b. 1935) and Conway Twitty were named Vocal Duo of the Year by the Country Music Association for years in a row in the early 1970s.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1971
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.011
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.011
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner
- Description
- Dolly Parton joined Porter Wagoner and the Wagonmasters in 1967. She launched her solo career in 1974.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- negative
- 1972
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.018
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.018
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Ricky Skaggs
- Description
- Henry Horenstein photographed Ricky Skaggs (b. 1954) several times as a member of Emmylou Harris's Hot Band and as a memeber of J. D. Crowe & the New South. A multi-talented singer and instrumentalist, Ricky Skaggs's success helped inspire the new traditionalist movement, and was largely responsible for a back-to-basics movement in country music.
- negative
- 1980
- 2003
- maker
- Horenstein, Henry
- ID Number
- 2003.0169.020
- accession number
- 2003.0169
- catalog number
- 2003.0169.020
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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