Between the Covers

Hardcover. Quarto. Measuring 7¼" x 12". Quarter red leather with cloth spine and gray decorative paper boards. Blank book with approximately 23 pages of handwritten notations. Spine split with bumped corners and spine ends, very good.

A small archive of documents of Robert Younger Norman, an African-American gospel singer. The material is contained in a ledger book that holds numerous programs, letters, banking statements, and pieces of ephemera that pertain to Norman personally, but also the Pilgrim Gospel Singers of the Promise Land Baptist Church in Moneta, Virginia. Norman was in the Army during World War II and after coming home worked as a chauffeur and for a taxi service on the side while singing with his Gospel group. The included letters are mix of personal (banking statements, bills, money orders, letter from his wife) and music-related correspondence (group meetings, performance schedules, invitations to sing with other groups and churches). Notable ephemera includes several church pamphlets promoting various choir events and gospel groups (Starlight Gospel Singers, Spiritual Four, Harmonizing Five, Mt. Zion Chorus, and others) and broadsides for two consecutive anniversary shows by the Pilgrim Gospel Singers in 1957 and 1958.

A Virginia gospel singer’s archive from the mid- to late-1960s.

Item #426126