Songs of Free Men

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 cardboard album book (2019.70a) with four 10” 78 rpm records (2019.70b-e) recorded by Paul Robeson and Lawrence Brown. The front cover of the album book has a mottled white background bordered in wide black ink. The upper right reads [paul robeson] in bold black ink, above a dark gray arm. The dark gray hand of the arm, with thick black wrist detail, is wrapped around a white dagger. The tip of the dagger slices through a coiled gray-striped black snake with orange swastika and eyes. Through the dagger’s piercing, the snake bleeds an orange puddle below the bulk of its body. In white bold letters, on an orange background angled like a stamp across the dagger [SONGS OF FREE MEN] is written in serif font. Opposite the snake’s tail, on the proper right of the album book cover, written in orange script, is: [Set M=534].

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