1890 · Chicago
Chicago: J.B. Wilson, 1890. Good +. Cabinet card measures 6¼” x 4¼”; business card is 1¾” x 3¼”. Cabinet card good plus due to moderate edge wear and some surface loss; business card good with uneven horizontal crease.
This is an exceptionally rare cabinet photograph along with a photographically illustrated business card of P.G. Lowery, the important musician and band leader. Betsy Golden Kellem's 2020 profile of Lowery (https://drinkswithdeadpeople.com/2020/01/p-g-lowery/) tells us that he was born in Kansas in 1869 to formerly enslaved parents. He came from a musical family, claimed to be largely self-taught, and in 1895 he enrolled at the Boston Conservatory of Music, becoming its first-ever Black graduate. In 1920, his band was the first African American band to play the main show at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Kellem shared,
“A gifted businessman as well as a musician, Lowery advocated for other black performers and employees: training leaders and musicians, creating opportunities for talented black performers, and improving overall labor conditions at the circus, going so far as to lead a 1915 strike on the Hagenbeck-Wallace show in protest of wage and benefit cuts for black staff members . . . Lowery was renowned for the quality of his band and the ability to teach others in a certain style and quality of performance, making others recognizable as being from the 'Lowery school.'”
We find no similar images of Lowery, nor any holdings of his business card. (Inventory #: 8433)
This is an exceptionally rare cabinet photograph along with a photographically illustrated business card of P.G. Lowery, the important musician and band leader. Betsy Golden Kellem's 2020 profile of Lowery (https://drinkswithdeadpeople.com/2020/01/p-g-lowery/) tells us that he was born in Kansas in 1869 to formerly enslaved parents. He came from a musical family, claimed to be largely self-taught, and in 1895 he enrolled at the Boston Conservatory of Music, becoming its first-ever Black graduate. In 1920, his band was the first African American band to play the main show at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Kellem shared,
“A gifted businessman as well as a musician, Lowery advocated for other black performers and employees: training leaders and musicians, creating opportunities for talented black performers, and improving overall labor conditions at the circus, going so far as to lead a 1915 strike on the Hagenbeck-Wallace show in protest of wage and benefit cuts for black staff members . . . Lowery was renowned for the quality of his band and the ability to teach others in a certain style and quality of performance, making others recognizable as being from the 'Lowery school.'”
We find no similar images of Lowery, nor any holdings of his business card. (Inventory #: 8433)
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