The Josephine Baker Scrapbooks consist of two scrapbooks assembled by her Japanese friend Miki Sawada. The scrapbooks contain photographs and clippings mainly reflecting aspects of Baker's personal life in the 1950s. Most of the photographs are unidentified.The first scrapbook documents Baker's 1954 visit to Japan and depicts her being honored at presentations, attending banquets and ceremonies, and visiting children, probably at the Elizabeth Sanders Home of which Sawada was founder and director. The second scrapbook contains publicity portraits of Baker as a young woman and views of her backstage and on stage dressed in a Japanese kimono. It also includes individual and group portraits of Baker's young children, a view of them preparing for bed, and a photographic Christmas card depicting Baker with her family. Among the photographs are clippings in Japanese and from American publications which pertain to the later part of Baker's life, including an obituary.
Content: One photograph bears photographer's name on recto. Most items are mounted on scrapbook pages. Some scrapbook pages are unbound. One item is a photographic Christmas card.
Content: Collection contains work by Ray Delvert, among others
Biographical/historical: Born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, Josephine Baker achieved fame in Paris in the 1920s. In the 1950s, she sought to achieve racial equality by adopting 12 children of various races and nationalities to create what she called a "rainbow family." Miki Sawada was the founder and director of the Elizabeth Sanders Home in Tokyo for ostracized mixed-race children fathered by U.S. servicemen with Japanese women. She and Baker had become friends in the 1930s in Paris, where her husband, Renso Sawada, was stationed as a diplomat.
Content: Forms part of the Josephine Baker Collection, 1933-1975.
Physical Description
Extent: 65 items (.3 cu. ft., 1 box)
Extent: 9 photographic prints :gelatin silver, b&w ;27 x 21 cm. or smaller.
Extent: 47 photographic prints :gelatin silver, b&w ;19 x 17 cm. or smaller.
