There are 2 other images of this object. See our image rights statement.
Object Timeline
|
-0001 |
|
|
1925 |
|
|
1937 |
|
|
2012 |
|
|
2015 |
|
|
2017 |
|
|
2025 |
|
Textile, Americana Print: Rhapsody
This is a Textile. It was company: Stehli Silk Corporation. It is dated 1925 and we acquired it in 1937. Its medium is silk and its technique is printed by engraved roller. It is a part of the Textiles department.
Between 1925 and 1927, the Stehli Silks Corporation produced the Americana Prints, a series of nearly 100 artist-designed dress silks for the modern woman. American artists, designers, celebrities and cartoonists were selected to create the prints, among them photographer Edward Steichen and cartoonist John Held Jr., who produced the piece featured here. Taken together, the prints present a microcosm of Jazz Age culture. One features automobiles, another aspirin tablets, and a third a crowd of people at a sporting event.
This example is a humorous riff off a typical polka-dot pattern, with jazz musicians and their instruments dotting the fabric in a repeating white and blue pattern. Like the other Americana prints, it was produced on a variety of silk fabrics, including crepe de chine, georgette, and chiffon. The prints were sold both as yard goods at high-end department stores and as ready-to-wear dresses at middle-market retailers. This, in addition to the publication of a limited-edition catalog of reproductions, ensured that the prints were widely circulated both as popular commodities and works of art.
This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled A Jazzy Print.
This object was
donated by
Marian Hague.
It is credited Gift of Marian Hague.
- Poster, The Ellery Eskelin Trio
- offset lithograph on paper.
- Gift of Niklaus Troxler.
- 2009-3-8
- The New Yorker (Jazz) Punch Bowl
- glazed, molded earthenware with sgraffito design.
- Gift of Mrs. Homer Kripke.
- 1980-21-7
- George Gershwin at Piano
- oil on canvas.
- Lent by Museum of the City of New York. Gift of Max D. Levy, 1967, 67.109.
- 76.2016.3
Our curators have highlighted 2 objects that are related to this one.
- Orchestra Bracelet
- diamonds, platinum, cabochon sapphires, carved onyx.
- Neil Lane Collection.
- 59.2016.20
- Sheet Music, Black and Tan Fantasy
- printed paper.
- Smithsonian Libraries, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Library, M1366.E44....
- 43.2016.12
Its dimensions are
H x W: 24.1 × 97.8 cm (9 1/2 × 38 1/2 in.)
Cite this object as
Textile, Americana Print: Rhapsody; Company: Stehli Silk Corporation (Switzerland); USA; silk; H x W: 24.1 × 97.8 cm (9 1/2 × 38 1/2 in.); Gift of Marian Hague; 1937-1-3
"Rhapsody In Blue," Paul Whiteman and His Concert Orchestra, featuring George Gershwin (1924)
George Gershwin is, simply put, an American treasure. While “American Popular Song,” “Tin Pan Alley,” and orchestral works are all a vital part of his catalog, “Rhapsody In Blue” is...
https://archive.org/details/PaulWhitemanAndHisOrchestra-1924/RhapsodyInBlue19242.mp3
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s.
