Special Collections Staff Picks

Source: Daily Reflector Negative Collection, East Carolina Manuscript Collection #741 Staff Person: Dale Sauter

Description:

On stage with Louis Armstrong

Today’s staff pick shows a slice of life in Greenville, North Carolina, entertainment nearly fifty years ago. These photographs are of world-renowned trumpeter and vocalist Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong playing at Raynor-Forbes Warehouse on November 3, 1959. According to the article in the Daily Reflector, Armstrong played to about 1,000 “Greenvillites” and East Carolina College students that evening. His choice of songs included “Tiger Rag,” “When the Saints Go Marching In,” “Mack, The Knife” and “Blue Berry Hill.” The band consisted of six pieces-a bass, clarinet, piano, drums, trombone and Armstrong’s famous trumpet. The paper also reported Armstrong being in a jovial mood before the show, as he chatted with his musicians, laughed and talked with gathering fans and signed autographs.

Louis Armstrong

These images can be found in the Seeds of Change online digital exhibit. Through an NC ECHO grant awarded by the State Library of North Carolina, 6,000 images from the Daily Reflector Negative Collection will be added to the exhibit, along with a historical essay and other educational resources. To date, approximately half of the images have been placed online, and the project will be completed by September 2009. Along with Seeds of Change, many other valuable image collections can be found on Joyner Library’s new Digital Collections website at the following link: http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/.

For more information on the Daily Reflector Negative Collection or any other collections we hold, please contact us for further details.

Louis Armstrong on stage

Louis Armstrong playing trumpet with man

Posted by Dale Sauter under East Carolina Manuscript Collection, photographs and Tags: music