Contract for a Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels performance
- Created by
- Unidentified
- Signed by
- Frohman, Charles, American, 1856 - 1915
- Subject of
- Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels, American, founded 1877
- Haverly, J. H., American, 1837 - 1901
- Date
- 1879
- Medium
- ink on paper
- Dimensions
- H x W: 14 x 8 1/2 in. (35.6 x 21.6 cm)
- Description
- A contract for Haverly's "Genuine Colored" Mastodon Minstrels to perform at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. The contract is a long folio leaf, with pre-printed fields that have been filled out by hand. An edit, by hand in ink, adds: "Genuine Colored" at the top of the document, which was signed by the troupe's manager, Charles Frohman. This contract stipulates that the minstrels were to get a share of the house take, based on the receipts at the door, a common practice even today. Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels was a black-face minstrel troupe created in 1877. The back of the contract has an inscription that gives a name and a date.
- Statement
- Objects depicting racist and/or stereotypical imagery or language may be offensive and disturbing, but the NMAAHC aims to include them in the Collection to present and preserve the historical context in which they were created and used. Objects of this type provide an important historical record from which to study and evaluate racism.
- Place depicted
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, North and Central America
- Classification
- Documents and Published Materials-Business and Legal Documents
- Racist and Stereotypical Objects
- Type
- contract documents
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Object number
- 2012.46.64
- Restrictions & Rights
- No Known Copyright Restrictions
- Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.