Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 0.67 linear feet (2 boxes)

Summary

1. Raven Chanticleer (née James Watson) was a fashion designer, artist, sculptor, dancer and Broadway performer, journalist, philanthropist, and founder, proprietor, and craftsman of the African-American Wax and History Museum of Harlem. The exact year of Chanticleer’s birth is uncertain; it is listed as 1928 in his "The New York Times" obituary although he claimed it was 1940. There is also some discrepancy about his place of birth: Woodruff, South Carolina or Harlem. A graduate of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, Raven also studied at the University of Texas, the Sorbonne, and possibly the University of Ghana. As a fashion designer, at first for Bergdorf Goodman, and then freelancing, Chanticleer designed clothes for many prominent celebrities, including, according to him, President Nixon, Princess Grace of Monaco, Billie Holiday, and Josephine Baker. He also performed in several Broadway shows, including "Hot House Flowers", "Jamaica", "Golden Boy", and "Hello, Dolly", and founded his own dance troupe, the Raven Chanticleer Dancers. His chief philanthropic venture was founding The Learning Tree in 1974; it functioned as an "educational entertainment group to package performers for several agencies, community centers, and state institutions. During the 1990s, Chanticleer added another facet to his varied career when he became a columnist for the "Daily Challenge", a Black newspaper. He also contributed articles about Black performers to other newspapers, such as the "New York Daily News" and the "New York Amsterdam News". Chanticleer is known also for the creation of the African-American Wax and History Museum in Harlem in 1998, which featured 14 life-sized likenesses of prominent African American figures of his own crafting, which he hoped would promote Black pride, especially among young people. After visiting Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in London and being dismayed at the absence of Black historical figures, he decided to found a museum featuring his own handcrafted life-sized figures of Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, Muhammad Ali, Josephine Baker, and others in the basement of his Harlem brownstone. He offered tours to groups of school children and senior citizens. Chanticleer passed away in 2002 from lung cancer.
2. This collection contains files of biographical material; correspondence; articles written by and about Chanticleer; his fashion drawings; assorted programs from events in which he participated; material related to his role as the executive director of The Learning Tree; and material related to the African-American Wax and History Museum.

Subject

1. African American artists
2. African American dancers
3. African American entertainers
4. African American fashion designers
5. African American journalists
6. Authors, Black
7. Museums -- United States -- Management
8. Philanthropists -- United States
9. Sculptors -- United States

Call number

1. Sc MG 881

Source (note)

1. Gift of Herje Hellend, 2011.

Author

1. Chanticleer, Raven, creator.

Title

1. Raven Chanticleer papers.

Production

1. 1968-2006.

Type of content

1. text
2. still image

Type of medium

1. unmediated

Type of carrier

1. sheet

Source

1. Gift of Herje Hellend, 2011.

Connect to:

1. Finding aid

Research call number

1. Sc MG 881