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Museum object · Accessories and Personal Effects

Hat box owned by Cab Calloway's family

after 1998

Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky, United States, North and Central America

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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 hat box owned by Cab Calloway's family. The hat box is constructed from brown cardboard. It has a round drum shape body (A2015.273.1.8.2a) and features a removable lid (A2015.273.1.8.2b). The box is decorated with clusters of white and black stamps and colorful adhesive labels on the top of the lid and on the sides of the box. The stamps include stylized images of people and reproductions of immigration stamps from places such as Heathrow airport, Osaka, Milan, Gatwick, and Taiwan from the 1950s and 1960s. Some of the stamps also feature reproductions of handwritten signatures. One white, circular stamp is a manufacturer stamp that reads [LEXINGTON / THE / PETERMAN/ CO. / KENTUCKY]. The lid also features five adhesive labels: two rectangular, two circular, and one octagonal in shape. One of the rectangular adhesive labels is orange and is a manufacturer’s label.

Sources & collection details

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture — original record ↗

Source collection ↗

Catalog metadata · CC0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

Catalog reference: A2015.273.1.8.2ab

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