Emma Louise Hyers

Emma Louise along with her older sister Anna Madah (not pictured) were pioneers of African American Musical Theater in the United States.

The Hyers Sisters made their public debut in their hometown of Sacramento, California in 1867 and began touring extensively in the early 1870s to wide acclaim. This is an early photograph of Emma Louise (born circa 1857), which was spotted in an album consisting mostly of theatrical portrait photographs from San Francisco dating from the 1870s and 1880s.

Emma Louise was a contralto, her sister a soprano, and over their long careers they collaborated with notable African American artists like Billy Kersands, Pauline Hopkins, and Sam Lucas on a string of successful productions.

Source: Harvard Theatre Collection