Howard University Library

History Detectives | Slave Songbook | PBS

Buy the DVD: http://www.shoppbs.org/entry.point?en… for more info: http://www.pbs.org/historydetectives. Watch the full segment from the History Detectives Special celebrating African American contributions to music. The president of the Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum in Culver City, California, recently discovered an unusual book in his late mother’s extraordinary collection of African-American artifacts. The small, cloth-bound book, titled Slave Songs of the United States, has a publication date of 1867 and contains a collection of 136 plantation songs. Could this be the first book of African-American spirituals ever published? HISTORY DETECTIVES host Wes Cowan visits a music historian in Los Angeles to explore the coded messages and the melodies that laid the foundation of modern blues, gospel and protest songs of future generations. He also meets with Washington, DC’s Howard University Choir for a special concert of selections from Slave Songs sung in the traditional style of mid-1800s spirituals. 

Exploring historical objects and the stories behind them, HISTORY DETECTIVES crisscrosses the country, delving into legends, folklore and personal histories to discover potentially extraordinary objects in everyday American homes, cities and small towns. Watch for the new season of History Detectives premiering June 2009. For more information, visit: http://www.pbs.org/historydetectives.

Early photographs sent to the 1900 Paris Exposition. From the Library of Congress photographic archives.
	Practice school teachers, Howard University Washington, DC ca. 1900. REPRODUCTION No.: LC-USZ62-95449 (b&w film copy neg.) CREATED/PUBLISHED: [ca. 1900]
	Class picture, Howard University, Washington, DC, ca 1900. REPRODUCTION No.: LC-USZ62-40470 (b&w film copy neg.) No known restrictions on publication. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [ca. 1900]
	Law graduating class, Howard University, Washington, DC, ca. 1900. REPRODUCTION No.: LC-USZ62-35752 (b&w film copy neg.) CREATED/PUBLISHED: [ca. 1900]
	Chemistry laboratory, Howard University, Washington, DC, ca. 1900. REPRODUCTION No.: LC-USZ62-97168 (b&w film copy neg.) CREATED/PUBLISHED: [ca. 1900]
	Elementary school students exercise, Howard University , Washington, DC, ca. 1900. REPRODUCTION No.: LC-USZ62-40471 (b&w film copy neg.) No known restrictions on publication. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [ca. 1900]
	Law Library, Howard University, Washington, DC, ca. 1900. REPRODUCTION No.: LC-USZ62-40468 (b&w film copy neg.) No known restrictions on publication. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [ca. 1900]
	Practice school, Howard University, Washington, DC, ca. 1900. REPRODUCTION No.: LC-USZ62-46480 (b&w film copy neg.) No known restrictions on publication. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [1899?]
	Class in bacteriology laboratory, Howard University, Washington, DC, ca. 1900. REPRODUCTION No.: LC-USZ62-40472 (b&w film copy neg.) No known restrictions on publication. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [ca. 1900]
	Main building, exterior, Howard University, Washington, DC, ca. 1900. REPRODUCTION No.: LC-USZ62-40466 (b&w film copy neg.) No known restrictions on publication. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [ca. 1900]
	Sewing class, Howard University, Washington, DC, ca. 1900. REPRODUCTION No.: LC-USZ62-40467 (b&w film copy neg.) CREATED/PUBLISHED: [ca. 1900]
	Pharmaceutical laboratory, Howard University, Washington, DC, ca. 1900. REPRODUCTION No.: LC-USZ62-35750 (b&w film copy neg.) No known restrictions on publication. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [ca. 1900]
	Dentistry clinic, Howard University, Washington, DC, ca. 1900. REPRODUCTION No.: LC-USZ62-35751 (b&w film copy neg.) No known restrictions on publication. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [ca. 1900]

http://www.howard.edu/explore/paris/circa1900.htm