The Legacy of George W Broome

The Legacy of George W Broome

An introduction to Broome Special Phonograph Records

Contrary to conflicting online information, the record label established in 1919 by George W. Broome at 23 Clayton Avenue, Medford, Massachusetts, is the first known black-owned record label, and predates Harry Pace's Black Swan label (established in Harlem in 1921) by at least eighteen months. "One of the more exciting recent developments in the study of early black recordings is the discovery of the first black-owned and operated record label. That label was long assumed to be Black Swan Records, founded in 1921 by Harry H. Pace, the publishing partner of W. C. Handy, which made its name in the field of jazz and blues. Nearly two years earlier, however, a black entrepreneur in Medford, Massachusetts, launched a label dedicated to black concert music, which he sold by mail.

Fewer than a dozen sides were issued, but what remarkable records they were! Broome was founded by a man who devoted much of his career to the advancement of black culture. Information about the life of George Wellington Broome is sketchy. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, most likely on April 8, 1868 After a few years trying to get a foothold in New York's competitive theatrical world, Broome moved his family to Medford, Massachusetts, where his occupation was variously listed as porter, labourer and waiter. He apparently worked in some capacity for the government, while continuing to dabble in various theatrical and educational enterprises.

In 1910 the New York Age reported that he had formed the Broome Exhibition Company to produce documentary films of black colleges. Immediately after World War I the patent monopoly of the two biggest record makers - Victor and Columbia - began to break down. Independent labels were entering the field and daring to produce lateral-cut records, playable on all phonographs, in defiance of the majors' patent. The first Broome recording sessions appear to have taken place in New York during the summer or early fall of 1919. Broome wanted to promote black concert artists, and he used his connections in the field to line up some impressive talent.

Moreover his artists had not recorded elsewhere because of the prejudice of the white companies against black classical artists. Broome had the field virtually to himself. Broome's first issued recording was a real coup. The eminent composer and baritone Harry T. Burleigh, one of the leading figures in the black musical world, agreed to record for his old friend Other artists recorded by Broome were sopranos Florence Cole-Talbert and Antionette Garnes, violinist/composer Clarence Cameron White, and pianist/composer R. Nathaniel Dett, the latter two playing their own compositions.

George W. Broome died in Medford on April 1, 1941 Broome Special Phonograph Records were for years forgotten, unknown even to specialists in recording history. Only recently has information about the label come to light" (Tim Brooks, Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919, 2005, chapter 32). At least three variations of Broome's label are known to exist: a brown label with black and brown type - which he marketed as the "Brown Seal Record" - another with black lettering and a white label with blue type.

A testament to the rarity of Broome recordings is that when Sutton and Nauck were compiling the enormous database CD that accompanied their American Labels and Companies (Denver, 2000), the only illustration they were able to locate was the much more common "pasteover" of a recording that Booker T. Washington originally made for Columbia. Broome's label was short-lived and it is believed that it closed down around 1923.

(Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, volume 2, p. 1249). A remarkable and rare survival from the infancy of African-American musical recording; to quote once again from Tim Lott's Lost Sounds: "Due to their unusual content, [Broome's recordings] are extremely important sound documents and deserve to be preserved and reissued".

Source https://biblio.co.uk/ and Peter Harrington Bookseller London

A big thank you to Caitlin Jones, Head of Reference at Massachusetts Archives, Boston MA, for helping me to find this information.

‘Broome Special Phonograph Records: A Look into the Life of George W. Broome and the Origins of the Black Record Company'

As part of the Ambientscape Project we will be doing research on George W. Broome the unacknowledged entrepreneur who would establish the first black owned record label, we are hoping to raise awareness of his achievements and are reaching out to George W Broome's family, friends, acquaintances, and also contacts, researchers and collectors with information on his life and work, please don’t hesitate to email us if you would like to participate in helping to uncover his legacy.

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