Research Catalog

Title

Negro Actors Guild of America records, 1904-1982, 1937-1982 (bulk)

Author

Negro Actors Guild of America, Inc.

Supplementary Content

Finding Aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

20.8 lin. ft.

Summary

The Negro Actors Guild (NAG) records document the functions and activities of this professional organization. The collection is divided into six series and ten subseries.

Donor/Sponsor

Schomburg NEH Blacks on Stage: African-American Theater Arts Collections Project.

Subjects

• American drama
• Whipper, Leigh R (Leigh Rollin), 1877-1975
• African American theater
• Childress, Alice
• African Americans > Music
• African American actors > Societies, etc
• American drama > African American authors
• Brewster, Townsend, 1924-
• Hunter, Eddie
• Razaf, Andy, 1895-1973
• African Americans > Charities
• Robinson, Bill, 1878-1949
• African American entertainers
• Negro Actors Guild
• Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974
• Gilbert, Mercedes
• Anderson, Marian, 1897-1993
• Vaudeville > United States
• African Americans in the performing arts
• Scripts
• Bush, Anita
• Wallace, Emmett Babe, 1909-
• Freeman, Kenn
• Handy, W. C (William Christopher), 1873-1958
• Waters, Ethel, 1896-1977
• Calypso (Music)
• Jessye, Eva, 1895-1992

Genre/Form

Scripts.

Note

• Plaster of Paris cast of Leigh Whipper transferred to Art and Artifacts Division.
• Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.
• Audiotapes of Executive Board meetings, 1975-1981, transferred to Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.

Access (note)

• Welfare Fund records restricted.

Terms of Use (note)

• Welfare Fund records are closed until 2086. Researchers using executive board minutes must agree in writing not to publish names or other information identifying individual welfare fund applicants or recipients.

Source (note)

• Coles, Charles "Honi"

Biography (note)

• The Negro Actors Guild was established in 1936 in New York City as a welfare and benevolent organization for black performers. The Guild was composed of six committees: finance, administrative, membership, entertainment, sick and welfare, with an executive board to oversee the activities of the committees.

Processing Action (note)

• Accessioned
• Surveyed
• Cataloging updated
• Processed

Call Number

Sc MG 259

OCLC

NYPW89-A163

Author

Negro Actors Guild of America, Inc.

Title

Negro Actors Guild of America records, 1904-1982, 1937-1982 (bulk)

Access

Welfare Fund records restricted.

Terms Of Use

Welfare Fund records are closed until 2086. Researchers using executive board minutes must agree in writing not to publish names or other information identifying individual welfare fund applicants or recipients.

Biography

The Negro Actors Guild was established in 1936 in New York City as a welfare and benevolent organization for black performers. The Guild was composed of six committees: finance, administrative, membership, entertainment, sick and welfare, with an executive board to oversee the activities of the committees.

The finance committee kept records of all expenditures accrued; the administrative committee's duties were to oversee all office procedures; the membership committee sponsored drives, promoted goodwill among the members and was responsible for raising funds; and the entertainment committee organized and sponsored a wide variety of benefits and programs whose proceeds were used primarily to assist needy entertainers. Two other core committees were the sick committee which oversaw visitations of the sick in homes and hospitals, and the distribution of gifts; and the welfare committee, which carried out the primary aim and purpose of the Guild: to give financial aid to entertainers. The Negro Actors Guild also published a quarterly journal, "The Negro Actor" from 1938-1940, which was superceded by a monthly newsletter. The Guild collapsed in 1981 due to the mishandling of funds and factional infighting.

Connect to:

Finding Aid

Research Call Number

Sc MG 259