Billie Holiday

Artist

Chuck Stewart, 21 May 1927 - 20 Jan 2017

Sitter

Billie Holiday, 7 Apr 1915 - 17 Jul 1959

Exhibition Label

Born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Renowned for making songs entirely her own, Billie Holiday once explained, “I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know.” Holiday was still in her teens when she began singing professionally in New York City in the early 1930s. Before long, she was performing in popular jazz venues in Harlem and recording with some of the era’s best musicians. Nicknamed “Lady Day” while touring with Count Basie in 1937, she became one of the first African American vocalists to headline an all-white band when she joined Artie Shaw’s Orchestra in 1938. A year later, during an engagement at Café Society in Greenwich Village, Holiday introduced “Strange Fruit,” the haunting indictment of southern lynching that would become one of her most iconic songs. Sadly, Holiday’s life was marred by struggles with drugs and alcohol, which contributed to her death at the age of forty-four.

Credit Line

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

1955

Object number

NPG.2013.92

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Copyright

© Charles H. Stewart

Type

Photograph

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Image: 32.9 × 26.5 cm (12 15/16 × 10 7/16")

Sheet: 35.4 × 28 cm (13 15/16 × 11")

National Portrait Gallery

Topic

Costume\Jewelry\Necklace

Equipment\Sound Devices\Microphone

Billie Holiday: Female

Billie Holiday: Performing Arts\Performer\Musician\Singer\Jazz

Portrait

Record ID

npg_NPG.2013.92

Usage of Metadata (Object Detail Text)

Usage conditions apply

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4e5b57212-3aca-4fbe-b77d-a33bd2a0aea4