Each June during Black Music Appreciation Month we acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of Black musicians, composers, recording artists and lyricists to the cultural landscape of the United States. The celebration informally began in 1979 and became an official annual government proclamation in 2000. The Vivian G. Harsh Collection has been celebrating Black music ever since our namesake, Vivian G. Harsh, began collecting materials and creating subject files when she became the head of the new George Cleveland Hall Branch in 1932.
Chicago Public Library’s Archives and Special Collection Division has a number of archival collections dedicated to a variety of African Americans in the music industry. Two of our most popular collections here in the Harsh Collection are the Charles Walton Papers and the Dungill Family Papers.
Charles Walton
Charles Walton was a regular visitor to the Harsh Collection and routinely met with our then senior archivist before passing away in 2005. Walton was an accomplished jazz drummer and music educator, teaching at Chicago’s Malcolm X College. He also wrote regularly for the Jazz Institute of Chicago in a column entitled “Bronzeville Conversations.” There he often relayed the history of the African American Local 208 of the American Federation of Musicians union and its eventual merger with the larger union. Walton also conducted oral history interviews with nearly 200 musicians, club owners and promoters and basically anyone associated with jazz and blues in the Bronzeville neighborhood. These interviews make up the bulk of his papers.
Johnny Pate Trio, Pate, Lionel Bright, Charles Walton (bottom), undatedWalton learned how to play drums following his military service and later performed with a number of Chicago bands, including the Johnnie Pate Trio. Source: Charles Walton Papers [Photo 051], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.
Charles Walton, seated left, at Club DeLisa, 1940sSource: Charles Walton Papers [Photo 086], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.
Morocco Hotel show bar, Oakwood and Drexel, 1950sSource: Charles Walton Papers [Photo 083], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.
Floyd Smith, Booker Collins, DuSable Lounge, 1940sSource: Charles Walton Papers [Photo 024], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.
VJ Records, 14th and Michigan, 1950sSource: Charles Walton Papers [Photo 055], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.
Walter Dyett at DuSable High School, 1946Dyett taught band and music at DuSable High School from 1935-1966. Source: Charles Walton Papers [Photo 12], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.
WAC (Women’s Army Corps) Band at war bond drive at State and Madison, 1944Source: Charles Walton Papers [Photo 113], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.
Dungill Family Papers
The Dungill family have a unique and remarkable story. Morgan Park residents Doyle and Evette Dungill were professionally trained musicians who decided to develop a sort of musical family. All seven of their children were musically trained as toddlers. The family played a variety of music from classical to popular to solos and instrumentals to arrangements in several languages. They began performing in churches and around the community in the 1930s, even developing their own method of instruction. In the 1940s the family began to perform as the Dungill Family Orchestra and became members of the Local 208 union. They toured and performed into the 1960s.
Dungill family circa 1934 Left to Right: Gloria, Gerald, Alexander, Elaine, Harriet, Doyle, Evette, Charles (Cookie) atop piano. Dungill Family Papers, [Photo 001], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.
Admission ticket to Dungill family performanceAs early as 1932, the Dungill family began performing at churches and schools and for community organizations throughout the Chicago area, under the name Dante and His Shadows. A popular draw to their concerts was the performance by youngest brother Charles, or “Cookie” as he was called. Source: Dungill Family Papers, [Box 5], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Admission Ticket, 5/3/1946In 1942, Mr. Dungill began to expand his musical outreach to the children of the new Ida B. Wells Housing Project by teaching his own original musical play, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Source: Dungill Family Papers, [Box 5], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.
Cover of Dungill Family Orchestra promotional brochureSource: Dungill Family Papers, [Box 3, Folder 21], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.
Dungill Family concert program coverDungill Family concert program cover, 1950. Source: Dungill Family Papers, [Box 3, Folder 17], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.
Dungill Family Orchestra, 1940sDungill Family Orchestra at Ida B. Wells Community Center, Chicago, IL, 1940s. Source: Dungill Family Papers, [Photo 005], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.
45 RPM recordsMembers of the Dungill family created music outside of the family, including recording and songwriting. Source: Dungill Family Papers, [Box 5], Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library.
I hope you enjoy these images. Drop me a note and let me know what you’ve got on heavy rotation this month!
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