Links
Web Sites
For someone whose memory has been in relative obscurity for many years Florence's name raises an impressive number of hits on the Internet. my favorite search engine www.google.com, which came up with 166 when I launched this site originally, now comes up with almost 21,000 or so hits for "Florence Mills" [Now 53,700, December 2103] . Although there's a small percentage of false hits, the vast majority are genuine references to her. Many of these are one line references in Harlem Renaissance sites or lists of death dates or noted events. However, there are still quite a few interesting ones, some of them listed here:
Sites mentioning Florence
Chicken Bones is a highly recommended web-zine devoted to African American literary and artistic issues. Read Florence Mill: A Lost Treasure by me in a back issue.
W.E.A.L.L.B.E. the site of artivist R2C2H2 (author of James Reese Europe: Jazz Lieutenant ) with much African American cultural and social content. See my answers to 22 questions about Florence Mills (may need to scroll down)
Jazz Links (History, early jazz etc)
Tom Morgan's Jazz Site (lots of great history here)
Red Hot Jazz Archive (Lots of great music here)
Jazz Institut Darmstadt (An interesting German site)
Ellington on the Web (David Palmquist's links to all things Ellington in cyberspace)
Eric K. Washington is a Harlem historian (Manhattanville: Old Heart of West Harlem) who also does guided tours of Harlem
Mark Berresford's Rare Records site has some stunning photographs from his personal collection
Mike Meddings' Doctor
Jazz site specializes in ragtime, blues and hot piano, especially the
great Jelly Roll Morton
[Sad to note, Mike, a true gentleman, died in June 2013 but the site
lives on]
https://www.aaastateofplay.com/musical-playgrounds-for-kids-the-history-of-jazz-music/
Theatre History Links
Vaudeville Times ( and American Vaudeville Museum) This great magazine and web site on the history of vaudeville carried an article on Florence (Volume III Issue 4) by me.
The Negro and the Theatre: A Glance at the Past and a Prophecy A famous essay by Isaacs, Edith J. R. ( Opportunity, Journal of Negro Life, June, 1935) mentions Florence as one of the 'greats'.
WWW Virtual Library (Theatre and Drama) An excellent site for general theatre resources
Footlight Notes lots of stuff on vaudeville, variety, revue etc from 1850s to 1920s
Black Culture sources
Stephen Bourne, noted author of many books and radio and TV series on Black people in the UK
Schomburg Center Home Page (New York Public Library, Harlem)
Center for Black Music Research (CBMR, Chicago)
Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (Howard University, Washington DC)
The Institute of Jazz Studies (Rutgers University)
Institute for Research in African-American Studies- Columbia University (New York)
W.E.B Du Bois Institute (Harvard)
Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection (Chicago, Woodson Library))
The Amistad Research Center (Tulane, New Orleans)
Suggestions for additions to these lists are welcome