Images: Iconography of Music in African-American Culture (1770s-1920s)

This lavishly illustrated book brings together for the first time over 250 paintings, engravings, and drawings that depict scenes of music, dance, religious practice, and storytelling in the everyday lives of blacks in their own, private social world. Over 120 artists are represented, including such eminent nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American painters as Thomas Eakins, Charles Demuth, Eastman Johnson, Winslow Homer, and William Sidney Mount, as well as lesser-known but important artists. The story of African-American music and culture is told visually through this wonderful collection of images that is certain to fascinate students and fans of traditional African-American culture.

Eileen Southern is Professor Emerita of Music and Afro-American Studies at Harvard University.