Abstract
Barbershop harmony is one of the great American inventions. The contemporary image of barbershop harmony is couched in a romanticized perception of the Gay Nineties, with dapper, white, middleAmerican barbers and their patrons posed next to barber poles in attitudes of harmonizing. There is, however, little in the mainstream literature of the period to reinforce this image. The literature of AfricanAmerican history, on the other hand, is shot through with references to barbershop singing. These references suggest strongly an AfricanAmerican origin for both the concept of male quartet singing in barbershops and the particular style of harmonizing that has come to be known as barbershop.
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