Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp)

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A cast metal souvenir replica version of the sculpture Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp) by Augusta Savage that was commissioned for the 1939 New York World's Fair and displayed in the courtyard of the Pavilion of Contemporary Art. The sculpture depicts a harp composed of an African American children's chorus with twelve singing, child figures arranged in descending height. The children's bodies appear somewhat cylindrical, creating a semblance of harp strings. Arranged behind a kneeling male figure at the front of the sculpture, they are dressed in choir robes, their mouths open in song, and stand with their arms behind their backs. The standing figures are cradled by a large outstretched forearm and hand that extends from the oval base, forming the harp's soundboard. There are three inscriptions in the metal on the oval base that read: “Augusta Savage” and “Worlds Fair 1939” along with a partial word “[….] right."

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