Two black actors, Gregory and Brown, one in drag, dancing the Cake-Walk in Paris. Photographic postcard, 1903.

Date:
[1903]
Reference:
2044881i
Part of:
The James Gardiner Collection.
  • Pictures
  • Online

Available online

view Two black actors, Gregory and Brown, one in drag, dancing the Cake-Walk in Paris. Photographic postcard, 1903.

Public Domain Mark

You can use this work for any purpose without restriction under copyright law. Read more about this licence.

Credit

Two black actors, Gregory and Brown, one in drag, dancing the Cake-Walk in Paris. Photographic postcard, 1903. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

About this work

Description

This image shows the same drag performer as in Wellcome Library no. 2044883i, wearing the same costume, but with a different dance-partner.

Publication/Creation

[Paris?] : [publisher not identified], [1903]

Physical description

1 photographic postcard ; 13.9 x 9 cm

Lettering

Le cake-walk. Dansé au Nouveau Cirque. Les nègres Lettering printed in white on bottom recto

References note

Channing Gerard Joseph, 'The first drag queen was a former slave', The nation, 31 January 2020 (about William Dorsey Swann, b. 1860; this photograph reproduced)
Valerie Edwards, 'From slave to Queen: The extraordinary life of William Dorsey Swann who was born into slavery in the 1800s and became the 'first drag queen to fight for queer freedom"', Mail online, 3 February 2020 (this photograph reproduced)

Notes

The following description was provided by Gerard Koskovich: "The man in drag wears a long dress with frilly trim and a large bonnet; standing next to a man in stripey jacket and trousers with a top hat and cane. The Cake-Walk was a dance which originated in the United States, apocryphally as a form of entertainment developed by black slaves on cotton plantations in the Deep South. It increased in popularity, and by the turn of the nineteenth century had developed into commercial entertainment that was exported to Europe. It rapidly became a 'dance craze' in Paris, and the catalogued photograph shows two black (American?) performers, both men, one wearing a frilly bonnet and ruffled dress, performing at the Nouveau Cirque . Gregory and Brown introduced the Cake-Walk to Paris in 1902"
This work is untitled: the title has been supplied by the cataloguer.

Reference

Wellcome Collection 2044881i

Languages

Where to find it

  • Photograph album labelled ‘Drag'

    LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores

Permanent link