Description:

Marian Anderson singing at her historic Easter concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, April 9, 1939, which drew over 75,000 listeners to the Mall. A world famous singer, Anderson was not allowed to rent the Daughters of the American Revolution's Washington venue, Constitution Hall, due to their "white artists only" policy. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and thousands of other members resigned from the DAR in outrage. Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, encouraged by Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, Anderson's manager Sol Hurok, and Walter White of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, arranged for this outdoor concert on the steps of the memorial. Thomas McAvoy (1905-1966) was one of the four original LIFE staff photographers, along with Margaret Bourke-White, Alfred Eisenstaedt and Carl Mydans. He worked as a news photographer at various papers from 1924 - 1935 including the Baltimore News, the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Herald, and the Washington Daily News. In Who's Who in America, McAvoy was described as a "pioneer photographer to use candid photography for news stories." In Beaumont Newhall's, The History of Photography, Newhall says "Thomas McAvoy took the readers of TIME Magazine into President Franklin D. Roosevelt's office and showed them a president at work, not consciously posing." In Slices of LIFE, John Loengard says, "In 1935, a soon-to-be LIFE photographer named Thomas McAvoy took a series of pictures of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the press gathered at his desk. There the great man is: coughing, joking, signing papers. Since no one expected that photographs could be taken in such dim light, they didn't think much of McAvoy's camera. Not long after the pictures appeared, candid photography was banned in the Roosevelt White House." McAvoy was a LIFE staff photographer from 1936 until 1960. This print was used for publication in LIFE Magazine, April 24, 1939 pg. 21. Used LIFE stamp, photographer's stamp and LIFE set no. 4023 on verso.

Shipping and insurance costs will be added to the price and must be paid for by the buyer. Pennsylvania buyers must pay appropriate local sales tax. International clients are responsible for their VAT and other custom's oriented charges.