Includes 7 VHS videotapes and 1 audio tape produced by Florice Whyte Kovan, containing interviews and recollections by some band members. Studio portraits and snapshot photographs in 3 scrapbooks, which also contain display advertisements and newspaper clippings from about the band, 1940s. Snapshots include documentation of the band's travels and leisure activities while on the road, including swimming, horseback riding, etc. Packaged hotel soap bars collected by Betty Hansen during the bands' touring documents their itinerary, as do picture postcards written by Alice Smaus Jacoby.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into seven series.
Series 1: Unmounted snapshots
Series 2: Scrapbooks
Series 3: Alice Smaus Jacoby's postcards
Series 4: Packaged soap samples
Series 5: Audiovisual Materials
Series 6: Framed Portrait Photoprints
Series 7: Oversized Photoprints
The scrapbook pages are arranged in original order, apparently partly chronological, but series 1 snapshots are in topical order.
Biographical / Historical:
Founded 1942 in Racine, Wis., by Virgil Whyte, his "all-girl" band was composed of young Racine women. Whyte was instructor, manager, and the initial leader on drums; later his sister Alice took over as drummer. After initial success in Racine and elsewhere in Wisconsin, the band began to accept engagements in other parts of the country, eventually touring the U.S. The band's success drew other acts and performers, including Jill Fontaine and the Wilford Mae Trio, Sam Hearn (known as "Schlepperman"), the Woodson Sisters, and Paul La Verre and Bro. They did U.S.O. tours, entertaining servicemen.
The principal donor, a free-lance researcher and writer, is the daughter of Virgil Whyte.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Florice Kovan, 1993.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Doris Kahl Nilo's snapshots from two small albums: 123 black-and-white silver gelatin prints and 1 color print. Albums, of recent vintage, not period, are included in the box. Gift of Doris Kahl Nilo.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Audiotape and videotapes of interviews with former band members, created by Florice Whyte Kovan, 1991-1993. These tapes are copies; Ms. Kovan retains the originals. Note: there is no volume 5 in this series.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
The Frames are identical in style, in two basic sizes, so apparently are not original, perhaps having been supplied by Ms. Kovan. The framed portraits duplicate some found in the scrapbooks. Large professional photographs of the band members depict them with their musical instruments.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
38 postcards (stamped and postmarked), nearly all containing messages from Alice Smaus to her parents in Downers Grove, Illinois, and to her future husband, P.F.C. Gerald Jacoby at Camp Keaney, Nebraska; mailed from locations in the South where the band entertained. Most images are photolithographs, but the group includes a "real photo" card of Amphitrite Hotel and its "gangplank," Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The cards are in an album with plastic pages, apparently supplied by Ms. Kovan, not actually used by Ms. Jacoby. Donated by Alice Smaus Jacoby.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Printout of a computer catalogue of the postcards by Pamela Hoyle, which describes the images and publishers of the postcards, but not the message content.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Virgil Whyte's "All-Girl" Band Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
