After Cooperstown, Harry Smith moved from friend to friend homeless in New York, finally to Franciscan Mission on Bowery, malnourished & weak. He stayed with me awhile, we took trip to visit Southern Folklore Society in Oxford, Mississippi with my 81 year old step mother Edith—we’d just settled in to our motel & Edith was calling home; Harry hoped for invitation to stay & work at Folklore Center & immediately recorded local Scottish bawdy songs. April 18, 1987.

1987

Allen Ginsberg

Artist, American, 1926 - 1997

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Gary Davis

  • Dimensions

    image: 27.8 × 18.6 cm (10 15/16 × 7 5/16 in.)
    sheet: 35.5 × 27.8 cm (14 × 10 15/16 in.)

  • Accession

    2018.196.23

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Allen Ginsberg Estate; Gary Davis, Greenwich, CT; gift to NGA, 2018.

Associated Names

Inscriptions

signed by artist, lower right on sheet in black ink: Allen Ginsberg; artist inscription, across bottom under image: After Cooperstown, Harry Smith moved from friend to friend / homeless in New York, finally to Franciscan Mission on Bow- / ery, malnourished & weak. He stayed with me awhile, we took trip to / visit Southern Folklore Society in Oxford Mississippi with my / 81 year old step mother Edith—we’d just settled in to our motel / & Edith was calling home; Harry hoped for invitation to stay & work at Folklore Center & immediately recorded local Scottish / bawdy songs. April 18, 1987.; on verso, by unknown hand, lower center in graphite: #759/24,752; lower right: 4/18/87 / Neg #15 / Clarksdale Miss / First [underlined]; bottom center in graphite: GD-AG-281; bottom right: GDC-836

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