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A Voice for Change: Marian Anderson - a lesson created by Amanda Arman

Album Description

Summary: Music is art and a means for communicating in a multicultural society.  When Marian Anderson was denied the opportunity to sing at D.A.R. Constitution Hall in Washington D.C., due to the color of her skin, Eleanor Roosevelt resigned as a member.  Mrs. Roosevelt went on to arrange an opportunity for Marian Anderson to sing for over 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial on April 9, 1939.

In this lesson, students explore the primary source photographs and recordings of Marian Anderson singing at the Lincoln Memorial on April 9, 1939. 

  • Students can sort the images of Marian Anderson, Eleanor Roosevelt, DAR Constitution Hall, the Lincoln Memorial into four categories.  They can peruse similarities and differences of the sources, what could they have in common? 
  • After the sort, read the book When Marian Sang:  The True Recital of Marian Anderson. 
  • Following the reading the book, allow students to make adjustments to their initial sort. 
  • In addition, students can then listen to the recording of "The Star Spangled Banner" recorded at the Lincoln Memorial on August 9, 1939.
  • Develop a class plus, minus, interesting chart for Marian Anderson's story. 
  • As a concluding activity, students can develop an individual mind map and/or poem as a tribute to Marian Anderson.

Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. Detail of statue

Reference link: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/gsc1994012180/PP/

Reference note

Creator(s): Gottscho, Samuel H. (Samuel Herman), 1875-1971, photographer
Date Created/Published: 1932 Oct. 25.
Call Number: LC-G612- 19242 [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Subjects: Monuments & memorials. United States--District of Columbia--Washington (D.C.)

Washington's prominent figures listen to Marian Anderson's singing. Washington, D.C., April 9. Behind Marian Anderson, the heroic statue of Lincoln; beside her, Cabinet members and Senators; before her a crowd of 75,000 black and white listeners. Left to right - Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morganthau, Mrs. Morganthau, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, [...] at the piano, Marian Anderson. 4-9-39

Reference link: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016875409/

Reference note

Creator(s): Harris & Ewing, photographer
Date Created/Published: 1939 April 9.
Call Number: LC-H22-D- 6302 [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes: Title from unverified caption data received with the Harris & Ewing Collection. Gift; Harris & Ewing, Inc. 1955. General information about the Harris & Ewing Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.hec Temp. note: Batch five.
Subjects: United States--District of Columbia--Washington (D.C.).

Interior Secretary Ickes congratulates Marian Anderson at concert. Washington, D.C., April 9. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, who introduced Marian Anderson at her open-air concert at the shrine of the president who freed her race from slavery, congratulating her after the concert to which an estimated 75,000 listened

Reference link: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016875408/

Reference note

Creator(s): Harris & Ewing, photographer
Date Created/Published: 1939 April 7.
Call Number: LC-H22-D- 6300 [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes: Title from unverified caption data received with the Harris & Ewing Collection. Gift; Harris & Ewing, Inc. 1955. General information about the Harris & Ewing Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.hec Temp. note: Batch five.
Subjects: United States--District of Columbia--Washington (D.C.).

Masses listen while negress sings. Washington, D.C., April 9. An estimated 75,000 people of all races massed before the Lincoln Memorial today while negro contralto Marian Anderson staged on of the most dramatic concerts seen in Washington. The concert was the culmination of the bitterest black-vs.-white contests since the World War. Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt resigned the DAR because of their refusal to allow her to sing in their Constitution Hall here, 4-9-39

Reference link: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016875406/

Reference note

Creator(s): Harris & Ewing, photographer
Date Created/Published: 1939 April 9.
Call Number: LC-H22-D- 6298 [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes: Title from unverified caption data received with the Harris & Ewing Collection. Gift; Harris & Ewing, Inc. 1955. General information about the Harris & Ewing Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.hec Temp. note: Batch five.
Subjects: United States--District of Columbia--Washington (D.C.).

Left, Eleanor Roosevelt, Assistant Director, Office of Civilian Defense; Right, Mary K. Browne, Deputy Director in Charge of Physical Fitness, Office of Civilian Defense

Reference link: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017699515/

Reference note

Date Created/Published: [between 1940 and 1946]
Call Number: LC-USE6- D-001770 [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes: Actual size of negative is C (approximately 4 x 5 inches). Title and other information from caption card. Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944. More information about the FSA/OWI Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsaowi Film copy on SIS roll 30, frame 951.
Subjects: United States.

Washington, D.C. Marian Anderson broadcasting a Negro spiritual at the dedication of a mural installed in the United States Department of the Interior building, commemorating the outdoor concert which she gave at the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of Revolution refused to allow her to sing in Constitution Hall

Reference link: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017698518/

Reference note

Date Created/Published: [1943 Jan.]
Call Number: LC-USE6- D-011103 [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes: Actual size of negative is C (approximately 4 x 5 inches). Title and date are from caption for LC-USW3-013421-C. There was no caption for this image in the FSA/OWI shelflist. Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944. More information about the FSA/OWI Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsaowi Film copy on SIS roll 34, frame 492.

Interior of Constitution Hall as DAR opened Annual Convention. Washington, D.C., April 17. A general view of Constitution Hall as the Daughters of the American Revolution opened their annual convention tonight with National Defense as their theme

Reference link: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016884381/

Reference note

Creator(s): Harris & Ewing, photographer
Date Created/Published: [19]39 April 17.
Call Number: LC-H22-D- 6367 [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes: Title from unverified caption data received with the Harris & Ewing Collection. Gift; Harris & Ewing, Inc. 1955. General information about the Harris & Ewing Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.hec Temp. note: Batch five.
Subjects: United States--District of Columbia--Washington (D.C.)

Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C. West portico

Reference link: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/gsc1994020825/PP/

Reference note

Creator(s): Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc., photographer
Date Created/Published: 1944 Mar. 8.
Call Number: LC-G612- 44963 [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Subjects: Concert halls. United States--District of Columbia--Washington (D.C.)

[Portrait of Marian Anderson singing]

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2004662513/

Reference note

Contributor Names: Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964, photographer
Created / Published: 1940 Jan. 14.
Subject Headings: -  Anderson, Marian,--1897-1993
Notes: -  Title derived from information on verso of photographic print.
-  Van Vechten number: XII Q.
-  Also available on microfilm.
-  Gift; Carl Van Vechten Estate; 1966.
-  Forms part of: Portrait photographs of celebrities, a LOT which in turn forms part of the Carl Van Vechten photograph collection (Library of Congress).
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital Id: van 5a51645 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/van.5a51645
cph 3c03734 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c03734

Portrait of Marian Anderson

Portrait of Marian Anderson

Bernstein rehearsing with singer Marian Anderson at Lewisohn Stadium, New York. June 1947. (Music Division)

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/lbphotos.47a119/

Reference note

Genre: Photographs
Notes: -  From: Photographs Series
Repository: Music Division

Marian Anderson at the ceremony held in the auditorium of the U.S. Department of the Interior at the dedication of a mural painting commemorating a free public concert given by her on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, 1939

Reference link: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017868132/

Reference note

Date Created/Published: 1943 Jan. 6.
Call Number: LC-USW3- 055756-C [P&P] LOT 2175 (Location of corresponding print.) (corresponding photographic print)
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes: Negative had no edge number. Title and other information from lot catalog card. Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944. More information about the FSA/OWI Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsaowi Temp. note: owibatch6 Film copy on SIS roll 17, frame 1080.
Subjects: United States--District of Columbia--Washington (D.C.)

Portrait of Marian Anderson

Reference link: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004662517/

Reference note

Creator(s): Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964, photographer
Date Created/Published: 1940 Jan. 14.
Call Number: LOT 12735, no. 50 [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Notes: Title derived from information on verso of photographic print. Van Vechten number: XII Q. Also available on microfilm. Gift; Carl Van Vechten Estate; 1966. Forms part of: Portrait photographs of celebrities, a LOT which in turn forms part of the Carl Van Vechten photograph collection (Library of Congress).
Subjects: Anderson, Marian,--1897-1993.

'\"Marian Anderson Sings at the Lincoln Memorial\" Newreel Story'

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF9Quk0QhSE

Reference note

'Marian Anderson's Easter Sunday Lincoln Memorial concert on April 9, 1939 from the UCLA Film & Television Archive's "Hearst Metrotone News Collection."'