Links
Web Sites
For someone whose memory has been in relative obscurity for many years Florence's name raises an impressive number of hits on the Internet. my favorite search engine www.google.com, which came up with 166 when I launched this site originally, now comes up with almost 21,000 or so hits for "Florence Mills". Although there's a small percentage of false hits, the vast majority are genuine references to her. Many of these are one line references in Harlem Renaissance sites or lists of death dates or noted events. However, there are still quite a few interesting ones, some of them listed here:
Sites mentioning Florence
Chicken Bones is a highly recommended web-zine devoted to African American literary and artistic issues. Read Florence Mill: A Lost Treasure by me in a back issue.
W.E.A.L.L.B.E. the site of artivist R2C2H2 (author of James Reese Europe: Jazz Lieutenant ) with much African American cultural and social content. See my answers to 22 questions about Florence Mills (may need to scroll down)
The
fake Florence Mills House
This claims to identify Florence's old home in Harlem, now run down but
recognized as an historic
landmark. Unfortunately however, there is a mistake, as
Florence's family home was on 133rd street, not 135th as claimed. The
National Parks people acknowledge the mistake but say that a listed site cannot
legally be de-listed as long as the building's "physical integrity"
has not been compromised!
Unfortunately the real one on 133rd St was replaced by an old folks residence
some years ago.
Jazz Links (History, early jazz etc)
Paul Blair's Swingstreets (Jazz walking tours through Harlem and other New York areas)
Tom Morgan's Jazz Site (lots of great history here)
Red Hot Jazz Archive (Lots of great music here)
Jazz Institut Darmstadt (An interesting German site)
Ellington on the Web (David Palmquist's links to all things Ellington in cyberspace)
Eric K. Washington is a Harlem historian (Manhattanville: Old Heart of West Harlem) who also does guided tours of Harlem
Mark
Berresford's Rare Records site has some stunning photographs from
his personal collection
Mark's VJM Jazz & Blues Mart
("Web Presence of the World’s Greatest Jazz and Blues Trading
Magazine") has an archive of interesting articles
Mike Meddings' Doctor Jazz site specializes in ragtime, blues and hot piano, especially the great Jelly Roll Morton
Theatre History Links
Vaudeville Times ( and American Vaudeville Museum) This great magazine and web site on the history of vaudeville carried an article on Florence (Volume III Issue 4) by me.
An excellent History of Vaudeville (needs Acrobat Reader, available here) which includes the wonderful Vanity Fair portrait of Florence. She and Paul Robeson were the only two black people to have full page portraits in Vanity Fair in the Twenties and Thirties.
The Negro and the Theatre: A Glance at the Past and a Prophecy A famous essay by Isaacs, Edith J. R. ( Opportunity, Journal of Negro Life, June, 1935) mentions Florence as one of the 'greats'.
WWW Virtual Library (Theatre and Drama) An excellent site for general theatre resources
Footlight Notes lots of stuff on vaudeville, variety, revue etc from 1850s to 1920s
Black Culture sources
Schomburg Center Home Page (New York Public Library, Harlem)
Center for Black Music Research (CBMR, Chicago)
Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (Howard University, Washington DC)
The Institute of Jazz Studies (Rutgers University)
Institute for Research in African-American Studies- Columbia University (New York)
W.E.B Du Bois Institute (Harvard)
Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection (Chicago, Woodson Library))
The Amistad Research Center (Tulane, New Orleans)
The Rawsistaz Reviewers for information on African American reading material
Suggestions for additions to these lists are welcome
