Obtaining Permissions for Photos of Nora Holt: The Layering of Archives

Nora Holt
Cheryl A. Wall
Black Music Composers
Black Singers
Harlem Renaissance
Lena Douglas

Nora Holt was a classical composer and pianist who performed live on radio when the medium was dominated by white men. She broke through the radio silence in the industry and amplified the voices of those around her, supporting and inspiring other Black classical musicians. In addition, she supported all kinds of Black music and influences. Almost all of her work and recordings, however, has been lost, a common story for artists who are marginalized. No recordings survive of her performances. In this silence, we, the audience, instead seek her voice in retold stories and scanned photographs.

Scholar Cheryl A. Wall wrote to the Van Vechten Trust in order to gain permission to use some photos from the archive in her article about Nora Holt. In other words, this item is from an archive within an archive. Also visible here are the complexities of categorizing complicated people into archives. Nora Holt went by many names, including Lena Douglas. Which name should she be filed under, then?

Cheryl A. Wall
Carl Van Vechten
Nora Holt

Subgroup: Series 8. Subject Files by Subject's Name, 1973 - 2018
Container: Box 23, Folder 1
Description: Holt, Nora; includes correspondence, papers by others, and "Nora Holt: New Negro Composer and Jazz Age Goddess" by Wall
Date: 2017

Carl Van Vechten Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University

Cheryl A. Wall Papers, Pembroke Archives, Brown University
Van Vechten Trust

September 2, 2018
1953
1932
1934
1926
1955

Donated to the Feminist Theory Papers by Camara Epps in 2020.
Curatorial work and processing provided by the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women on behalf of the Black Feminist Theory Project and Feminist Theory Archive, Brown University Library.

All researchers seeking to publish materials from the collections of the John Hay Library are requested to complete a Notice of Intent to Publish, prior to reproducing, quoting, or otherwise publishing any portion or extract from this collection. Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.

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