WHITLOCK'S COLLECTION OF ETHIOPIAN MELODIES. As Sung with Great Applause by William Whitlock at the Principal Theatres in the United States. Who's That Knockin' At The Door. Published by C.G. Christman, 404 Pearl Street, New York City, circa 1846. Cover illustration designed by lithographer Eliphalet M. Brown, Jr. (1816-1886) who served as Commodore Perry's photographer for his 1852 expedition to Japan. Early printing as indicated by the listing of only two songs on the front cover, Mary Blane and Who's that Knockin'.

Sheet Music for voice and piano, composed and sung by Wm. Whitlock. Illustrated yellow lithograph title cover printed by Edward Jones & George W. Newman depicting a minstrel show with two performers on the Bowery Theater stage, William Whitlock playing banjo and Master John Diamond dancing a jig, a woodland backdrop is behind them on the proscenium. Softcover, 13.5" x 10", disbound, hand-sewn together, 6 un-numbered pages, music score and lyrics. VERY GOOD CONDITION: former owner's contemporary penned name on front cover, one front edge tear to the middle leaf, and some light wear from age and use, otherwise bright, clean and unmarked. A later printing of this title is in Emily Dickinson's personal volume of collected sheet music at Harvard.

In the 1840s minstrel shows were a major craze in the United States. A distinctly American form of popular culture imbued with controversial cultural dynamics. Minstrel performances worked to reinforce the racial ideology of white superiority. Blackface performers relied on crude, stereotypical depictions of Blacks to entertain white audiences. The performers'

ragged costumes, blackened faces, and exaggerated dialectical diction created a negative image and the shows depictions of the plantation as a benign, happy place ignored the brutality of slavery.

William Whitlock (1813-1878) early pioneer of American blackface minstrelsy, blackface performer best known for his role in forming the original minstrel troupe, the Virginia Minstrels.

Eliphalet M. Brown, Jr. (1816-1886) American artist, daguerreotypist, lithographer, and photographer.