A handsome Carnegie Hall concert brochure with Anderson's portrait on the cover, under which she has penned her name. The program was a recital with Franz Rupp accompanying Anderson on piano and included arias by Haydn, Beethoven, and Strauss.

Marian Anderson was a preeminent American contralto, renowned for the loveliness of her voice. One of the most famous incidents in American musical history occurred in 1939 when the Daughters of the American Revolution refused permission for Anderson to sing at Constitution Hall, their concert venue in Washington, D.C. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt then arranged for Anderson to sing in an open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Anderson was also the first black person to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.