489
●
(MUSIC.) “SLAVE SINGERS.”
Miscellaneous promotional material for
four important post Civil War singing groups: J.W. Donavin’s Original
Tennesseans; The Creole Quartette, La Teche Children; The Norfolk Jubilee
Singers and the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
Various sizes, printed and photographic.
MUST BE
SEEN
.
Vp, 1870’s to 1880’s
[800/1,200]
A SCARCE EARLY AMERICAN POSTER
490
●
(MUSIC—MINSTRELSY.)
Th e Or i g i n a l Na s h v i l l e S t u d e n t s .
Chromolithographic poster, 27 x 41 inches, with an inset “Opera House. Two Nights, Feb.
1 & 2, 1886,” 14 x 5
1
⁄
2
inches, printed on pink paper; signs of marginal damp-staining, light
edge-wear; professionally conserved, matted and framed.
Chicago: Goes and Quensel Litho., 1886
[5,000/7,500]
H.B. Shearle’s Original Nashville Students group was one of two groups touring during the
late 1880’s, and by far the more successful of the two. Curiously, neither was comprised of stu-
dents, and neither had any connection with Nashville or Fisk. The Manager and “impresario,”
H.B. Thearle was a first class showman who knew how to take full advantage of the suggestion
of the noted Fisk Jubilee Singers. In 1890, Thearle added such extravaganzas as The Siege of
Sebastopol” and the Storming of Vicksburg” to the company’s repertoire. Thearle claimed the
success of his group was due to “retaining the old Southern style and giving a truthful represen-
tation of the Negro as he appeared in the days of slavery.”
490
