African Americana

Ink on blue paper, 4 x 2 3/4 in. mounted to heavier stock white paper (adhesive residue on verso, light soil, creases).

Manuscript ticket with handwritten notations: "Louisville Theatre / Thursday. Jan 19th 1837 / Admit Two / Coloured Gallery / N. Cushman."

By 1837 there was a well-established theatre scene in Louisville with competing theatres vying for business. "N. Cushman" is likely the same individual listed in the 1832 Louisville City Directory with a street address "at Theatre," though the specific theatre was not identified. The theatre most commonly referred to as the "Louisville Theatre" opened in February 1846, but prior to that time other venues utilized that same name and theatre names changed frequently. An August 1836 edition of the city's Courier-Journal identifies a "Louisville Theatre, Jefferson Street" while a January 1837 edition of the same paper cites the "Messrs Potter & Waters, the liberal and judicious Managers of the Louisville Theatre...."  Regardless of the specific site of the venue for this performance, it was notable for having a "coloured gallery" where patrons of color were required to view performances. A scarce piece of ephemera documenting not only segregation, but also the participation of African Americans in cultural pastimes in the antebellum South.