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Archival description
May Irwin collection
CA ON00329 F 01 · Collection · [ca. 1870-2009 ; predominant 1895-1915]

The collection consists of a variety of material relating to the professional and private lives of May Irwin and her sister Flora. As one of North America’s foremost “coon shouters,” May Irwin engaged in and benefited from the deeply racist traditions of minstrel music and blackface performance in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Irwin’s musical records constitute hate speech.

Records are arranged in files. Record types include the following: personal letters, articles, newspaper clippings, sheet music, playbills (paper and satin), tourist publications, and magazines.

Campbell, Georgina May, 1862-1938