[Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins (1849-1908) (Flickr.com: 1866 photo by Antoine Naudin)]
“'Blind Tom' Wiggins
Born into slavery in 1849, 'Blind Tom' Wiggins was an African American autistic savant with a prodigious talent for playing the piano. Although his vocabulary was only about 100 words, eventually he learned perhaps 7,000 pieces of music, mainly from classical composers. In 1866, at the age of 16, he went on a world tour, first appearing in London in July of that year. According to an advertisement which appeared in the Times, 'The extraordinary success which attended the private soirée of the Negro Boy pianist, Blind Tom, at the Queen's Consort Rooms, Hanover Square, on Wednesday evening last, has induced his guardians to give a few public performances, prior to the close of the London season, of which due notice will be given' (21 July 1866). He died in 1908 in Hoboken, New Jersey.
“Photographed by Naudin of Brompton Road, London. Entered at Stationers' Hall [part of the copyrighting process] on 1 August 1866 by Antoine Naudin of 124, Brompton Road, London.”
Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins (1849-1908) is featured at AfriClassical.com, which presents a complete Works List compiled by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma of Lawrence University Conservatory. The most recent biography of the enslaved pianist is The Ballad of Blind Tom, Slave Pianist: America's Lost Musical Genius, written by Deirdre O’Connell and published by Overlook Press (2009). The book's website is http://www.blindtom.org/
1 comment:
Please credit your sources. Not only have you pinched this photo (either from my website or from my photostream on Flickr) but you have also reproduced the text I wrote to accompany the image word for word without credited me. Paul Frecker, The Library of Nineteenth-Century Photography.
Post a Comment