THE CENTER FOR POPULAR MUSIC, MIDDLE
TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY,
MURFREESBORO, TN
BILLY CARTER MINSTREL SCRAPBOOK 97-036
Creator:
Carter,
Billy
Type of Material:
Scrapbook, including Manuscripts, Newspaper Clippings, Performance Documents, Photographs
Physical
Description:
1
scrapbook (1 linear foot)
Dates:
1863-1904
Abstract (Descriptive Summary):
This
scrapbook documents the career of Billy Carter, a banjo minstrel performer
whose career survived through the twilight of minstrelsy. The scrapbook
includes numerous newspaper clippings, photographs and representations, and
performance documents, as well as contracts from several cities and theaters
and broadside and leaflet playbills.
Access/Restrictions:
The
collection is open for research use.
Provenance
and Acquisition Information:
This
scrapbook was primarily assembled by Billy Carter himself. The scrapbook was purchased
by Center for Popular Music in December 1997 from Savoy Books.
Subject/Index Terms:
Carter,
Billy
Minstrel
music
Minstrel shows
Blackface
entertainers
Agency
History/Biographical Sketch:
Billy
Carter was born in New Orleans in 1834. His first major engagement was with the
Louisiana Minstrels in the mid-1860s. He migrated north, and beginning in
Pennsylvania and thence to New York, he established himself as one of the most
popular acts on the northeastern minstrel circuit. Billed as the “King of the
Banjo Players,” he was one of the chief players of the period, known for his
challenges to the public with a $500 wager that he could not be outdone on the
instrument. In addition to his solo career, he played with the leading troupes
of the day, including Hooley’s Minstrels, Harrigan & Hart, and Tony Pastor;
his career survived the twilight of minstrelsy, and he continued into vaudeville
until a few years before his death in 1912.
Scope
and Content:
Clipped
reviews; clipped humorous sketches, jokes, and cartoons; contracts; prints;
memorabilia; and twenty-eight programs and playbills documenting Carter’s career
as a banjo minstrel performer. Highlights of the scrapbook include ten (10)
engagement contracts signed by Carter, mostly from the 1870s, representing
theaters and agents in New Orleans, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, and
Boston; twenty-four (24) broadside and leaflet minstrel and variety playbills,
including two on satin; several representations of Carter, including a clipped
color lithograph blackface portrait, a woodcut full portrait as appearing on
the detached and mounted cover of Carter’s banjo songster, a half-tone portrait,
and an albumen photograph half-length; a letter to Carter informing him of the
birth of his daughter; and a telegram sent at the time of his death. There are
numerous clippings, many of which are reviews mentioning Carter’s performance;
also many comic sketches, jokes, and cartoons; and sentimental, religious, and
patriotic pictures.
Arrangement:
The
original arrangement of the scrapbook was maintained during processing, unless
otherwise described in the below note about provenance and arrangement.
The
photographs were taken and the notebook compiled and arranged by Center staff.
Preservation
efforts and presentation of the scrapbook itself were done by a student worker
under the supervision of CPM’s archivist.
Location:
This
scrapbook is located among other manuscripts collections, filed by accession
number.
Related
Materials:
The InMagic
database of CPM’s holdings maintains records for other minstrel playbills,
photographs, programs, and memorabilia. The Apollo
Club Minstrels Scrapbook, governed by the same accession number, is also an
important collection of minstrel performances.
Notes:
About Provenance
and Arrangement
For
documentation of the original arrangement of the scrapbook, please see the
black notebook marked “BILLY CARTER’S SCRAPBOOK --PHOTOGRAPHS” which is
available for reference upon request. The black and white photographs in that
collection document all the material contents of the scrapbook as CPM had
received it from the dealer.
The
current century-box contains all the items from the original scrapbook. Pieces
that were large have been moved to oversize boxes and drawers, and photocopies
placed therein. Original pages with any writing on them have been kept and
placed in the back. These original pages were photocopied and used as the base
sheet for the items they had presented. Most of the original pages were crowded
within the items, and for viewing ease, have been separated slightly from one
another.
A notebook
that documents the Billy Carter Minstrel
Scrapbook was kept and documents the condition and arrangement in which the
scrapbook was received. The photographic images are meant only to provide a
record of the arrangement of the materials, not for the purpose of preservation
of their content. Efforts will be made to microfilm the notebook for its
contents.
In most
cases, it is assumed that Carter himself had assembled and placed all the
materials found in the scrapbook, but who placed the telegram announcing his
death and the obituary in the scrapbook remains unknown, nor is it certain that
other things regarding Carter were not placed in the scrapbook by someone other
than him.
Many of
the large playbills and programs that are housed in oversize boxes in the
Center’s holdings were folded up and stuffed under the front cover of the
scrapbook. Other materials were inserted among the pages. Center staff has
tried to photograph each of these loose materials in the place where they were
found. In most cases, staff could not fit the whole article in the camera’s
frame, so staff has tried to record a piece of the content that would identify
the article from the others. The Center chose to use black and white print film
to document the scrapbook’s arrangement, but the color slides at the end of the
notebook were meant to provide some indication as to how the colorful images in
the notebook looked in situ.
Processed
by David M. Jellema, Paul Wells, Regina Forsythe, and Rebecca Watrous, June
1999
Revised by
Rachel K. Morris, July 2011