{{Short description|American violinist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2016}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Walter F Craig | image = Walter F Craig.png | caption = Craig in 1909<ref name="PreLenten1909">{{cite news|title=Pre-Lenten Recital, The New York Age (New York City) |newspaper=The New York Age |date=February 25, 1909| page= 6| accessdate= October 11, 2016 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6980468/prelenten_recital_the_new_york_age/}}</ref> | birth_date = {{birth date|1854|12|20}} | birth_place = Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1933|2|8|1854|12|20}} | death_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S. | alma_mater = | occupation = Musician | party = | spouse = Bertie Toney-Craig }}
'''Walter F. Craig''' (December 20, 1854 – January 25, 1933) was a violin soloist and orchestra director in New York City. His career started in 1870 and continued until the 1930s. He was known for his performance and interpretation of classical music, but he also was popular performing at dances.
==Early life== Walter F. Craig was born in Princeton, New Jersey on December 20, 1854, to Charles A. and Sarah E. Craig. He moved to New York City in 1861 where he went to Colored School No. 7 under principal Charlotte Smith, who was succeeded upon her death in 1863 by Mrs. Sarah J. Smith Tompkins Garnet; by the time Craig graduated in 1869, the school's name had been changed to Colored School No. 4. He began to study violin in 1868 and held his first concert at Cooper Union in 1870.<ref name="Simmons1887">Simmons, William J., and Henry McNeal Turner. Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising. GM Rewell & Company, 1887. p451-453</ref> His musical training was under Hermon Troste, Edward Mollenhauer, and Carl Christian Muller.<ref name="AllAuthors1887">{{cite web|author=Arneax, J. A. |title=All the Colored Authors|publisher= The Sun (New York City) |date=May 15, 1887| page= 9|accessdate= October 11, 2016 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6980047/all_the_colored_authors_the_sun_new/|via=newspapers.com}}</ref>
==Career== His musical career took off and he organized what was known as "Craig's Orchestra" in 1872. His orchestra began to tour widely and he also became internationally famous as a violin soloist. As a musician, he became associated with a number of prominent vocalists including women: Madame Selika, Nelly Brown Mitchell, Adelaide G. Smith, Flora Batson,<ref name="Simmons1887"/> Emma Azalia Hackley<ref name="Snyder2016">Snyder, Jean E. Harry T. Burleigh: From the Spiritual to the Harlem Renaissance. University of Illinois Press, 2016. p133, 155</ref> and Sissieretta Jones<ref>{{cite web|title=At the Brooklyn Theatres|publisher= The Evening World (New York City) |date=April 15, 1893| page= 5| accessdate= October 11, 2016 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6980132/at_the_brooklyn_theatres_the_evening/|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> and men: L. L. Brown, William I. Powell, Thomas Chestnut,<ref name="Simmons1887"/> and Harry Burleigh.<ref name="Snyder2016"/> His compositions were also well known. He became concert master at the Mendellsohn School of Music and he was the first black conductor to be a member of the Musical Mutual Protective Union of New York City.<ref name="Simmons1887"/> Craig's orchestra was over half white until about 1911, and the union was criticized for not supporting Craig as much as he supported it and white musicians because Craig was black.<ref>{{cite web|last=Walton|first= Lester A. |title=A Delicate Situation|publisher= The New York Age (New York City)|date= November 12, 1914| page= 6|accessdate= October 11, 2016 |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6980536//|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> By 1887, his orchestra included 75 musicians.<ref name="AllAuthors1887"/> In 1893 he was elected a member of the Antonín Dvořák-led National Conservatory of Music of America.<ref>Abbott, Lynn, and Doug Seroff. Out of sight: The rise of African American popular music, 1889–1895. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2002. p297</ref> Later in his career, Craig became well known for introducing African American musicians to the stage. For example, in January 1915 he featured Roland Hayes in Hayes' premier New York shows.<ref>Brooks, Christopher A., and Robert Sims. Roland Hayes: The Legacy of an American Tenor. Indiana University Press, 2014. p37</ref>
Craig was famous for a number of annual musical concerts. His first annual Christmas reception occurred in 1880 and continued into the early 1900s.<ref>{{cite web|title=Afro-American Notes|publisher= The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York) |date=December 23, 1902| page= 8|accessdate= October 11, 2016 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6980167/afroamerican_notes_the_brooklyn_daily/|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> Similarly, in 1880 he presented his first Annual May Festival which also continued into the 1900s.<ref>{{cite web|title=Craig's 25th Annual May Festival|publisher= The New York Age (New York City) |date=May 18, 1905| page= 3| accessdate= October 11, 2016 |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6980197/craigs_25th_annual_may_festival_the/|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> Possibly the most well renowned annual concert was his pre-lenten reception which took place at Palm Garden in New York and continued into the 1910s.<ref name="PreLenten1909"/>
Craig was at the front rank of musicianship among African-Americans and New Yorkers.<ref name="Simmons1887"/> His work frequently interpreted classical composors with "exceptional feeling and fidelity" and was important in shaping the musical tastes of African-Americans in New York City. His abilities stretched beyond classical composition and his orchestra was in great demand for dance programs.<ref>{{cite web|title=Musician who Made his Mark|publisher= The New York Age, (New York City) |date=February 11, 1933| page= 4| accessdate= October 11, 2016 |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6980707/musician_who_made_his_mark_the_new/|via=newspapers.com}}</ref>
==Family and death== thumb|Bertie Toney-Craig in 1909 On December 14, 1898, Craig married Britannia T. Davis,<ref>Dutch Reformed Church Records, Lafayette, New Jersey, December 14, 1898</ref> an elocutionist known professionally as Bertie Toney (and sometimes thereafter as Bertie Toney-Craig), who had a daughter from her previous marriage, Elsie Davis.<ref>1900 United States Federal Census</ref> Together, the couple had second daughter, Ruth Craig.<ref>1910 United States Federal Census</ref> Bertie died at their Brooklyn home, 483 Hancock Street, on May 16, 1919.,<ref>Certificate of Death, Department of Health of the City of New York, Bureau of Records, May 16, 1919</ref> and the following year he married the recently widowed former singer Minerva "Minnie" Skanks Conick,<ref>Certificate and Record of Marriage, State of New York, June 15, 1920</ref> whose late husband, Edward Gearing Conick, had been the recording secretary of The Frogs (club), a Harlem-based association of African American theatrical professionals. Later in his life, Craig worked as a violin teacher<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6980644/no_headline_the_new_york_age_new/ (No Headline), The New York Age (New York City) October 12, 1929, page 2, accessed October 11, 2016 16 – via newspapers.com]</ref> Craig died on January 25, 1933, at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn.<ref>Certificate of Death, Department of Health of the City of New York, Bureau of Records, January 25, 1933</ref>
==Works== *Selika Galop – dedicated to Madame Selika<ref name="AllAuthors1887"/> *Arneaux March – Written for and dedicated to the dramas of John A. Arneaux<ref name="AllAuthors1887"/> *Excelsior – A grand march<ref name="AllAuthors1887"/>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, Walter F.}} Category:1854 births Category:1933 deaths Category:Musicians from Princeton, New Jersey Category:Musicians from New York City Category:Activists for African-American civil rights Category:American bandleaders Category:American violinists Category:20th-century African-American musicians