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The Trooper of Troop K

1917 film directed by Harry A. Gant

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ107283542 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Trooper of Troop K is a Lincoln Motion Picture Company film produced in 1917, directed by Harry A. Gant and starring Noble Johnson. It was the production company's second film.

Set at the Battle of Carrizal, the film contains a battle scene with hundreds of extras, depicting African American U.S. soldiers fighting Mexican soldiers.

The film originally consisted of 3 reels of 35 mm movie film. Most of this is now lost film. The small portion that survives is earliest extant fragment of Black-produced cinema.

Synopsis

Joe (Noble Johnson) is fond of Clara (Beulah Hall) but his inept romantic gestures do not impress her. Jimmy (Jimmie Smith) reacts with disgust to Joe's antics, and competes with Joe to win the affections of Clara. Joe joins the army because Clara suggests this will help Joe clean up his act.

The army captain is delighted by Joe's kind-hearted nature and his skill with horses.

Editorial summary

“The Trooper of Troop K” enters the record as 1917 film directed by Harry A. Gant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Trooper, Troop and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1917—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1917-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Trooper, Troop and film.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“The Trooper of Troop K” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Trooper, Troop and film provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q107283542. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1917.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Trooper of Troop K”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Trooper of Troop K primary sources, The Trooper of Troop K archive and Trooper research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Trooper of Troop K”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Trooper of Troop K” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.