Skip to content

Museum object · Photographs and Still Images

Photograph of Disc Jockey Bill “Hawk” Hawkins with Dinah Washington

ca. 1954

Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, North and Central America

COLLECTION RECORDImage not availableExplore the catalog description and source record.
Visit the source record ↗

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A black-and-white photograph of Disc Jockey Bill “Hawk” Hawkins with Dinah Washington taken from outside the Bill Hawkins’ Record Studio. A small crowd of onlookers are peering inside the DJ booth windows from the sidewalk. The crowd of mostly teenagers and children are depicted on the right side of the photograph. Most of the onlookers are shown in profile or with their backs to the viewer. At the back of the crowd, in the right foreground, is a boy in a white tee shirt, dark trousers, and medium-toned baseball cap with a Schwinn bicycle. There is a crumpled sheet of newspaper laying on the sidewalk in next to his front tire. Standing inside the DJ booth windows is Hawkins and Washington. Hawkins stands on the right and is speaking into a silver tone microphone.

Sources & collection details

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture — original record ↗

Source collection ↗

Catalog metadata · CC0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

Catalog reference: 2018.91.2.35

Continue exploring Series 1

Arts, Music & Culture →

Explore all Series 1 cards →