{
"data": {
"id": 148373,
"accession_number": "1975.85",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Women's Club, 1927. James Van Der Zee (American, 1886\u20131983). Gelatin silver print; image: 19.1 x 24.1 cm (7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.); matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Links, Cleveland Chapter, 1975.85. \u00a9 Donna Mussenden VanDerZee",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Women's Club",
"creation_date": "1927",
"creation_date_earliest": 1927,
"creation_date_latest": 1927,
"artists_tags": [
"Black American Artists",
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "gelatin silver print",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "PH - American 1900-1950",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 19.1 x 24.1 cm (7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.); Matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.191,
"height_inch": 7,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"width": 0.241,
"width_inch": 9,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5
},
"matted": {
"height": 0.356,
"height_inch": 14,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.457,
"width_inch": 18,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Donna Mussenden VanDerZee",
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Written in negative: VANDERZEE [signed] / NYC [underlined] / 1927; written in pencil on verso: \"1927 James Vanderzee\"; \"Women's Club\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 311875,
"title": "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997).",
"opening_date": "1996-11-24T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 393871,
"title": "A New York Minute: Street Photography, 1920\u20131950",
"description": "A New York Minute: Street Photography, 1920\u20131950. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-November 7, 2021).",
"opening_date": "2021-07-10T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: \"Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art.\"",
"opening_date": "1997-02-02T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Harlem\u2019s preeminent portrait photographer James Van Der Zee portrayed people as they wish to be remembered. Mrs. Edith Milburn, possibly the sitter second from the left, commissioned this formal group portrait, set in an elegant home on West 138th Street in Harlem.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79928743"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Lee, Sherman E. \u201cThe Year in Review for 1975.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63, no. 2 (February 1976): 31\u201371.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 50; Mentioned: p. 70, no. 145",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152624"
},
{
"citation": "Hinson, Tom E. \u201cEight New Photographs.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 2 (February 1981): 51\u201362.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 52-53, fig. 2",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159712"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 367",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Adamson, Glenn. \"Capture the Flag.\" The Magazine Antiques 186, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 2019): 22-23.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 23",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1975.85",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of the Links, Cleveland Chapter",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 148373,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1049,
"description": "James Van Der Zee (American, 1886\u20131983)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "James Van Der Zee American, 1886-1983 Famous for his images of Harlem and its inhabitants, James Van Der Zee was born in Lenox, Massachusetts. During his youth, he took portraits of family members and friends, and after various jobs in Lenox and New York City began work in 1911 as a photographic assistant in the portrait studio run by Charles Gertz in Hahne's department store in Newark, New Jersey. From 1912-15 Van Der Zee operated a portrait studio in the Toussaint Conservatory of Art and Music, established by his sister Jennie. Two years later Van Der Zee opened a studio in Harlem and began making his memorable portraits. During the period of his greatest success, from the years of the Harlem Renaissance (1919-29) until World War II, he photographed the area's large African-American middle class, producing formal portraits of individuals, families, church and school groups, athletic organizations, women's clubs, fraternal organizations, weddings, funerals, and street scenes. He also photographed Harlem's celebrated artists, writers, singers, religious leaders, and politicians. In 1924 Van Der Zee became official photographer for Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association, documenting their conventions, rallies, and parades. He retired in the 1960s, but resumed photography for a brief period before his death. M.M.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1886",
"death_year": "1983",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1975-11-29T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1927,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1927",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-07-16 11:12:40.810000"
}
}