I discovered an unusual musical duo in Vermont’s digital archives. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any recordings of their music (unsurprising, considering audio recording was not readily available at the time). Fortunately,  the Carter Family has graciously stepped up to provide musical accompaniment, if you’d care to hear.

The first picture features three musicians. Seated on the left, holding a ukulele, is Julius Willard. Next to him sits Miss Alice Perham with her banjo. The name of the gentleman standing on the right with a guitar is unknown.

Alice and Julius were a familiar musical duo in and around the Windham County, Vermont area. Their collaboration is an interesting one. They would have attracted a lot of attention. At the turn of the century,  it was still a rarity for a female musician to perform publicly. Also, Julius was a blind man whose musical genius extended to many instruments. And, of course, Alice was a white woman and Julius was a black man.

Neither Julius nor Alice ever married. Alice was an only child who never moved away from her parents’ home. She and Julius had been playing musical gigs together since at least 1897, when she was 24 years old and he was 40.

The two were apparently great friends. Julius lived at Alice’s parents’ home, possibly as a boarder.

The archives contained some newspaper blurbs related to the pair.

Julius died suddenly in 1914, two days after suffering a stroke.  I couldn’t find any more newspaper notices about Alice performing publicly after his death. After her father and mother passed away in 1924 and 1931 respectively, Alice lived alone until her own death in 1953.