This album was created by a member of the TPS Teachers Network, a professional social media network for educators, funded by a grant from the Library of Congress. For more information, visit tpsteachersnetwork.org.
An old story made new. Negro makers of history
Album Description
. . . and an old booklet.
I discovered this 8-page booklet while looking for information on Ira Aldridge, America’s first internationally acclaimed black actor. It is billed as The very book for which Public Schools have long waited – THE PEOPLE”
This album includes a few images from the booklet and a link to a booklet about Ira Aldridge a significant actor whose name is unfamiliar to most of us. (Why is this?)
Social Studies/HistoryAn old story made new. Negro makers of history by Carter Godwin Woodson ... Washington D. C. The Associated publishers. Inc. [n. d.].
Teaching Notes
Included are “pictures of distinguished Negros,” categories such as “Meritorious Negros of Long Ago,” “Captains of Industry” “Negroes Successful in Site of Handicaps,” and “ Negroes of Genius. While the terminology and approach are dated and uncomfortable, the booklet offers a glimpse of an earlier presentation of history. The publishers hoped to make money selling pictures.
Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.21003300/
Reference note
Contributor Names: Woodson, Carter Godwin.
Created / Published: Washington.
Subject Headings: - United States--District of Columbia--Washington
Genre: Catalogs--District of Columbia--Washington
Notes: - Circular regarding the book.; Genre: Piece 1: Catalogs; Piece 2: Blank Forms.
- Page Order: Leaflet
- Available also through the Library of Congress web site in two forms: as facsimile page images and as full text in SGML.
- 2 duplicate copies
- Printed Ephemera Collection; Portfolio 210, Folder 33.
- Copy scanned: 2
Digital Id: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.21003300
Written from the Point of View of a Child
Teaching Notes
The author explains this is an adaption of another book, presented to help children learn.
There are study questions for discussion such as:
What advantage has free labor over slave labor?
What do you know bout Uncle Tom’s Cabin?
African Americans Social Studies/History Textbook (old) 6 - 8 9 - 12
Pictures for purchase
Teaching Notes
A list of pictures of famous Negroes that can be purchase as a group or individually (along with an order blank)
Note the addressee in the order form.
Pictures Logically grouped in categories
Teaching Notes
Pictures Logically grouped in categories
Ira Aldridge, distinguished in Europe as a Shakespearean Actor is in the Negros successful despite Handicaps” group.
Mr. Ira Aldridge as Aaron
Teaching Notes
In 1821 a group of freed slaves formed African Grove, America’s first professional black theater company. The actors wanted to act— and they wanted to show to show white theaters that Black Americans could speak The King’s English, including Shakespeare. When New York City's leading theater put on Richard III, the African Company rented a hall next door for its own production of Richard III. The white theater’s owner orchestrated a disturbance over the rival productions so police would shut down the African Grove. The city eventually shut the theater down
Ira Aldridge, the son of freed slaves, joined the African Grove Theater as a teenager at first working backstage. He moved to London in the 1820’s to play Othello, Shylock and other roles typically played by white actors. He sometimes whitened his face, but left his hands black. He gained success, celebrity and wealth in Europe and was also popular in Eastern Europe and Russia. He was also an activist, speaking out against slavery. Aldridge died in Poland in1867.
Aldridge is the only actor of descent honored at the at the Shakespeare Theater in Stratford upon Avon, England. The Howard University’s Theater Department’s performance stage is in the Ira Aldridge Theater.
English/Language Arts Actors African Americans African Groive Theater Ira Aldridge
Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/99471607/
Reference note
Summary: Illustration shows full-length portrait of Ira Aldridge as Aaron in Shakespeare's "Titus Andronicus."
Contributor Names: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.
Created / Published: [London] : The London Printing and Publishing Company, [1852?]
Subject Headings: - Aldridge, Ira Frederick,---1867--Performances
- Theatrical productions--England--1830-1860
Notes: - Caption: "He dies upon my scimetar's sharp point, / That touches this my first-born son and heir!" Act 4, sc. 2.
- From a daguerreotype by Paine of Islington.
- Exhibited: Portraits of a People: Picturing African Americans in the Nineteenth Century, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, and other venues, 2006.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C., 20540 USA
Digital Id: ppmsca 08977 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.08977
cph 3a40210 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a40210
A glance at the life of Ira Frederick Aldridge,
Teaching Notes
22-page booklet about the life of Ira Aldridge
https://www.loc.gov/item/17011681/ (PDF)
Found in African American Perspectives: Materials Selected from the Rare Book Collection.
Ira Aldridge discussion, The Arts and Primary Sources Group
English/Language Arts Actors African Americans 9 - 12 Ira Aldridge
Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/17011681/
Reference note
Contributor Names: Peyton, Fountain.
Daniel Murray Pamphlet Collection (Library of Congress)
Created / Published: [Washinton, Printed by R.L. Pendleton], c1917.
Subject Headings: - Aldridge, Ira Frederick,---1867
- Actors, Black--Great Britain--Biography
- African American actors--Biography
Notes: - LC copy imperfect: all before p. 5 wanting.
- choice, form AACR2. LC had both copyright copies, but no longer.