National Negro Opera Company collection, 1879-1997

The National Negro Opera Company, the first African-American opera company in the United States, was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1941, by Mary Cardwell Dawson. The collection contains materials and records related to the company and to Dawson. It includes correspondence, administrative and financial records, photographs, programs, promotional and publicity materials, scrapbooks, clippings, address books, notebooks, costumes, music, and books. In addition, the collection contains materials related to opera singer La Julia Rhea, who performed with the company, and Walter M. Dawson, Mary Cardwell Dawson's husband, who worked for the company.