Blue Jackets music and photographs, circa 1946-1950.

1.17 linear feet (1 box)

English

Song texts are in English.

Purchased from Langdon Manor Books, LLC on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, 2019.

Arranged by type of material.

This material is open for research.

The Blue Jackets were a vocal group of African American men who performed rhythm and blues music and spirituals in the Chicago area, 1940s-1950s, and made 45 rpm phonograph records for Mercury Records and Dot Records during the same period. In the 1940s, members of the group served in the United States Navy and performed in the Bluejacket Choir, a group comprised of sailors attending the United States Navy Training Support Center Great Lakes, in Great Lakes, Illinois. The Blue Jackets (also spelled Bluejackets) were known by variant names including the Four Blue Jackets, the Five Original Blue Jackets, and the Original Five Blue Jackets. Members included singers Joseph S. Bryant, Toby Bryant, William S. Graham, and James E. Holmes, and pianist Elmer Thomas.

Manuscript music and manuscript and typescript song texts performed by the Blue Jackets, undated; two photographs and one negative, showing unidentified members of the group, undated; and a typescript mimeograph program for a performance in Gary, Indiana, 1946. Most music consists of sets of parts, made by copyist I. Barrington Perry, for first, second, third, and fifth trumpet; first tenor, first/second alto, and baritone saxophone; first and third trombone; and bass, guitar, and drums. Some song texts are written on letterheads of "The Blue Jackets," Chicago, or "Commercial Trades Institute, Midwest Trade School Division," Chicago.

Archives or Manuscripts / Images

March 11, 2020

Blue Jackets music and photographs. James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Blue Jackets music and photographs. James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.