Wooden marionette wearing a green velvet suit and bow tie
name: label: Artist
content: William N. Buckner
notes: label: Caption
content: William N. Buckner, Jr. (1888-1984) made this formally dressed marionette using woodworking skills honed at M Street High School, a preeminent school for African Americans in Washington, DC’s segregated public schools. The twelve-string wooden marionette wears a white shirt under his dark green velvet suit, accented by a blue-and-white plaid bow tie and brown shoes. Initially, he might have worn a hat atop his paper-mâché head, painted, like his hands, a deep brown. Buckner continued to use puppetry as a teaching tool in his forty-seven years as an educator in District schools. For example, a dwarf puppet (nmah_662361) made by Buckner’s students at Armstrong Vocational High School and the accompanying script (nmah_1982643) from their performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are in the collection of the National Museum of American History. The dwarf puppet went on to star in “Puppets and Things on Strings,” a Smithsonian exhibition whose opening coincided with the World Puppetry Festival in June 1980. In keeping with his well-dressed marionette, Buckner wore a tuxedo accented with a carnation to the exhibition opening, an event that drew puppeteers from around the world to Washington, DC.
label: Caption
content: ---
label: Caption
content: William N. Buckner, Jr. (1888-1984) fabricó esta elegante marioneta utilizando conocimientos de carpintería que perfeccionó en la M Street High School, una destacada escuela para afroamericanos del sistema segregado de educación pública de Washington D.C. La marioneta de madera de doce cuerdas viste una camisa blanca bajo su traje de terciopelo verde oscuro, realzada por una corbata de moño a cuadros azules y blancos y zapatos marrones. Sus manos están pintadas de un color marrón intenso, al igual que su cabeza de papel maché, sobre la cual es posible que en algún momento llevara un sombrero. Buckner continuó utilizando los títeres como herramienta didáctica durante sus cuarenta y siete años como educador en las escuelas del Distrito.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anacostia Community Museum Collection
creditLine: label: Cite As
content: Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Anacostia Community Museum
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2011.1008.0002
objectType: label: Type
content: puppet
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: wood, paper-mâché, cotton, paint, string, wire, nails
label: Dimensions
content: Puppet: 22 7/16 × 7 1/2 × 3 9/16 in. (57 × 19 × 9 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: From first controller to feet of puppet: 63 3/4 in. (162 cm)