Mattie Barber Sloan was the bookkeeper and assistant to Thomas Store Winstead for his group Winstead's Mighty Minstrels, a Fayetteville, North Carolina, Black Minstrel group who toured the Eastern United States from 1931 to 1956. This collection contains documents and memorabilia (1927-1956, undated) kept by Mattie Sloan related to Winstead's Mighty Minstrels and other Black Minstrel groups such as Irvin C. Miller's "Brown Skin Models". Included are ledgers (1944, 1951, 1954, undated) recording ticket sales, salaries, and routes for the Winstead group and photographs, work licenses, advertising circulars and cards, and a poster. The strength of the collection is the historical significance that shows the involvement of African Americans as performers and managers that were not often included in standard histories of circuses and vaudeville.
The Mattie Sloan Collection of Black Minstrel Ephemera consists of photographs, ledgers, work licenses, advertising circulars, and cards compiled by Mattie Sloan. The materials relate to Winstead's Mighty Minstrels. Information used to create this finding aid came from Circus and Vaudeville – Alex Albright. alexalbright.works/research/circus/. Accessed 16 Jan. 2024.
October 13, 2023, 0.75 cubic feet; Mattie Barber Sloan was the bookkeeper and assistant to Thomas Store Winstead for his group Winstead's Mighty Minstrels, a Fayetteville, North Carolina, Black Minstrel group who toured the Eastern United States from 1931 to 1956. Her husband Frank was the bandleader. This collection contains documents and memorabilia (1927-1956, undated) kept by Mattie Sloan related to Winstead's Mighty Minstrels and other Black Minstrel groups such as Irvin C. Miller's "Brown Skin Models". Included are ledgers (1944, 1951, 1954, undated) recording ticket sales, salaries, and routes for the Winstead group and photographs, work licenses, advertising circulars and cards, and a poster. A few of the photographs belonged to Katie Abraham who had been a featured dancer with Silas Green from New Orleans in the late 1920s. Purchased from Alex Albright.
Purchased from Alex Albright
Processed by Martha Elmore and Jennifer Beatty (2023-2024)
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