Collection (1943, 2001) consisting of a report entitled Profile of the Members of the B–1 U. S. Navy Band of World War II, 1942-2001, submitted by W. F. Carlson, Jr., B-1 Executive Treasurer and Calvin F. Morrow, B-1 Secretary of the U. S. Navy B-1 Band, the first all-African American Navy band during World War II, and a Servicemen's Map of the United States and Insignia of the Armed Forces, Published by Fred Harvey (Chicago, IL: Rand McNally and Company © [1943]) Folding map.
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.
Collection (1942 – 2014, undated) of programs, notes, photographic prints, etc. documenting the history and membership of the U. S. Navy B-1 Band, the first All-African American band to serve in the U. S. Navy during World War II, including reunion programs, historical and biographical sketches and photographs of the band and its members, rosters, and the music and lyrics for naval hymns.