Asking a Hand: "Leff me be de possessah ob dat lubly number seben!"

The late nineteenth-century Darktown prints by Currier & Ives depict racist stereotypes that are offensive and disturbing; the images were often accompanied by captions in a demeaning dialect. The Metropolitan Museum of Art preserves such works to shed light on their historical context and to enable the study and evaluation of racism.　

This print caricatures a Black (African American) couple in a dramatic courtship scene, as if presented on a theatrical stage. At right, a man-- who is formally dressed in black tails, a yellow vest, blue/white striped pants, and white gloves --stands with his legs wide apart (straddling his top hat on the ground) and makes a spirited marriage proposal. He proclaims his desire with his right arm raised in the air; his words, invoking a lovely (and lucky) "number seven," are imprinted in the bottom margin. His declaration has startled the woman (standing, left) who grimaces as she let's go of her bouquet of flowers, and drops her pet dog --shown airborne as it falls with its pink ribbon leash flying. The top part of her outfit is a yellow/black striped pattern (with white cuffs and collar); her skirt cascades with a white/pink patterned fabric over a full-pink patterned ruffled hem.


Nathaniel Currier, whose successful New York-based lithography firm began in 1835, produced thousands of prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century American life and its history. People eagerly acquired such lithographs featuring picturesque scenery, rural and city views, ships, railroads, portraits, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments. As the firm expanded, Nathaniel included his younger brother Charles in the business. In 1857, James Merritt Ives (the firm's accountant since 1852 and Charles's brother-in-law) was made a business partner; subsequently renamed Currier & Ives, the firm continued until 1907.