Jazz Signers

“Autographs” is stamped in gold across the top of the book’s bright green cover, and in the corner is a little girl holding an umbrella. While it might look like something to be passed around a 5^th grade classroom on the last day of school, this darling autograph book was actually passed around the nightclubs of Winnipeg, Manitoba in the 1940s. It's filled with signatures of some of the greats, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, and Gene Krupa. 

The book is for sale now, on eBay.

Ghosts of Mardi Gras Past

These photos of costumed revelers are from the Telling-Grandon scrapbook/diary, found at the LOUISiana Digital Library. It contains photographs and ephemera collected by an Evanston, Illinois group during a visit by train to the New Orleans Carnival of 1903.

The Telling-Grandon group